Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / Ep.7 with Ajibola Jinadu (Founder & CEO of myCFOng)

Transcript

Ep.7 with Ajibola Jinadu (Founder & CEO of myCFOng) · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

• 0:01
  Welcome to the Kingdom's. Podcast Sharing the stories of
• 0:05
  ordinary people doing extraordinary things
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  Ladies and gentlemen, you'll once again welcome to another
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  episode of the King Games Podcast.
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  Let's go. This is a lifetime lesson, so
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  start now. Hello wonderful people, you once
• 2:13
  again welcome to the King James Podcast.
• 2:16
  And today we have with us a very important man from Lagos,
• 2:21
  Nigeria. He is the CEO of my CFO, Ng, and
• 2:28
  he's a man of multiple endeavours.
• 2:31
  Big welcome at Chipola Chinedu. How are you today?
• 2:37
  I'm very fine, thank you. I did my that.
• 2:40
  Thanks for for having me. Yeah.
• 2:42
  And I I I really hope to do justice to an ordinary person
• 2:48
  doing the extraordinary thing. I mean, wow.
• 2:51
  Very, very ordinary. But I'm actually very humbled
• 2:55
  that you actually invited me to this.
• 2:57
  So looking forward to a very good interaction.
• 3:02
  OK. Thank you very much.
• 3:03
  And of course you do me big on gratitude.
• 3:06
  I am very grateful for you squeezing our time from your
• 3:10
  very busy schedule. You know, Ajibola, you know,
• 3:14
  it's a very busy, but I have to get to be able to steal some
• 3:17
  time on his calendar to get him to talk.
• 3:20
  He's a very, very big deal. Like, you know, it's something
• 3:23
  that I do not take for granted. So really, let's get to meet
• 3:27
  you. Who would you say actually
• 3:29
  bullet, you know, to ease her? Who are you?
• 3:32
  Who would you describe yourself as?
• 3:35
  Interesting. So I mean you you put the
• 3:39
  questions through. I mean, so your preparation for
• 3:41
  this and I looked at that question and I was like, do I do
• 3:46
  I do. Do I even know who I have?
• 3:49
  I mean it's very I I'll answer it anyway, but to the best of
• 3:53
  our ability. But actually what I'm trying to
• 3:55
  say that it got me reflecting like, yeah, so, so who really
• 3:59
  are you? Are you the founder of myself?
• 4:04
  When G are you an accountant? Are you a father?
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  Are you a husband? Who exactly are you?
• 4:11
  Are you all of those Those things are the roles you play,
• 4:15
  but they will you are things like that.
• 4:17
  So it really supposed to be a simple question of whether it
• 4:20
  could be really thinking, thinking.
• 4:23
  But what I would say Ajibola Janadi is, is just the simple
• 4:28
  guy in Lagos. And when I say simple, I'm
• 4:34
  actually very, very simple. That's you won't find anything
• 4:39
  complex or complete, anything complex, complicated.
• 4:43
  I either find a way to simplify it or I just delegate it and all
• 4:48
  of that. So, simple guy, married with two
• 4:51
  kids. I'm big on family.
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  Especially the the nuclear, the nuclear kind.
• 5:01
  So like because it's still simple like I just know who who,
• 5:04
  who is who is who. Another of that.
• 5:07
  Mostly I would say I'm an introvert.
• 5:11
  I yeah, it's not necessarily a bad thing or it's not
• 5:15
  necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't mean I don't have
• 5:18
  experiences and all of that, but I get my energy from retreating.
• 5:23
  Extroverts get their energy from going out and out of that, I get
• 5:26
  my energy from retreating. And when I retreat, I'm reading
• 5:29
  books or watching movies, doing things like to energise myself.
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  So in a simple space I don't want to go in, although it's all
• 5:38
  of the professional whatever, but like who I am in my natural
• 5:44
  self. Ajay is just a simple guy just
• 5:48
  just trying to get through life. It's just the the I like to ask
• 5:53
  every guest about you know their childhood and growing up because
• 5:57
  to me I feel that is a very important you know phase of life
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  that defines you as a person, right.
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  He described himself as an introvert as somebody who has
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  got whose places along premium on you know family you know
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  values. Right.
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  You also professional consummate professional at that, right.
• 6:19
  But then I like to believe that you're cat food, you're growing
• 6:24
  up, your early influences, your early life mentors actually did
• 6:28
  shape you into who you are. But do you agree with that?
• 6:33
  Yeah, I I definitely agree 100%. As if whoever we are now is just
• 6:40
  a sum of all our experiences and our childhood in particular,
• 6:44
  plays, plays a lot, Psychologists and all these
• 6:49
  guys, they actually did studies and what you really are as a
• 6:53
  person, by the time you're 2021, it's already formed, and it's
• 7:00
  really formed in your teenage years.
• 7:02
  And so my childhood was a mix of fun and me wishing I could go
• 7:14
  back and do it all over again. Especially my.
• 7:16
  Secondary school years. So yeah, I'm the first of three
• 7:23
  kids. My parents have a younger
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  brother, younger sister. So anyway, I mentioned that to
• 7:29
  just let you know, there's always a there's a first,
• 7:32
  there's a pressure of the first born.
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  Wow, so. But I I decided to pressure that
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  Cosby. Exactly.
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  So there's a pressure of the first one.
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  I want to even hide that and say there's the pressure of the
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  African first one I know. So real talk.
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  I really felt growing up that I never measured up to the
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  expectations I had of my dad, my father.
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  And because the pressure came as early as whatever, when I was
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  still figuring out how to even where's my left, where's my
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  rights then somebody is already like putting a lot of
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  expectations on on on you. I.
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  So I get this nuclear whatever from my own family as well.
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  Like I didn't see my cousins much and things like that and
• 8:30
  you saw them at parties and stuff.
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  But we're not like this. All the cousins get together.
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  We're not really big. We're very close.
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  So the interactions for my general interactions were really
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  around my dad, my mom, my siblings, just like that over
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  and over again. And so I was very shy.
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  I was very shy. I wasn't out there.
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  In fact, if my secondary school, it's if I my secretary school is
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  like see what I'm doing now and be like, is it that same guy?
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  And so I was very shy. I was.
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  I lacked confidence. I in fact, that's why I say,
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  well, I want to go. I just want to go back and do
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  all of that again, but it doesn't really matter.
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  But it really shaped how I started to think about things,
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  because being a quiet, shy person meant that was very
• 9:23
  reflective. So I'm thinking, so it has a
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  good has advice about the things I'm always in my head she
• 9:31
  scenarios and all of that. How was it?
• 9:33
  Daydream, a big Daydream. As a kid I didn't think it has
• 9:36
  left me my way, but now I get to execute more.
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  But then as kids or as a kid, I couldn't execute much.
• 9:42
  So I would just dream up all of these scenarios and all of that
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  I know. And and because I was also shy
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  as well, I couldn't, I didn't do much.
• 9:51
  I would really say I didn't do much.
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  I know, but it's not. I think that's part of what made
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  me very very deep thinker and avid reader and very analytic
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  very analytical as a person and all of that.
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  So I I when I look back I just wish OK I could have gotten into
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  more shenanigans as as a teenager as a so we I saw my
• 10:18
  friends were doing and all that and I was just wished I could
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  just like do it so but then I I honestly didn't say I really did
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  much then although most of it then coincided with my time in
• 10:31
  secondary school. I was in boarding house in the
• 10:33
  federal government college and also I had little experiences as
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  I home because just family and all of that and then you and
• 10:42
  your parents you're not meet and all of that and then you're the
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  first one. So the younger ones are looking
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  up to you. So I can't really say I had
• 10:48
  friends and things like that. So school was where I was
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  exposed to a lot and in that in that space he was very clear
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  that and I think that's also part of what affected the
• 11:02
  confidence was clear that people were actually getting experience
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  when they would have brothers or maybe their parents were less
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  strict and things like that. So the way outside and doing
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  things and while there was just in my head wishing and thinking
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  I could do things and all of that.
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  So so so all that happened and I finished secondary school around
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  when I was 16 ohh 16 and this was in in 2000 was 20/19/84.
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  So I finished 16, cleared my wig and all of these things.
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  And I, in fact, it was really at that point that the relationship
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  with my dad change because all the while he was just telling me
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  in Africa and you know, you know, you know how it is.
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  The last period, like I've done. Your way, if you find your way,
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  you you disgrace me and things like that.
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  I know. In fact, even between S2 and S3
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  he was like really considering like making me repeat access
• 12:00
  too, because he didn't want me to disgrace his family name and
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  all of that and and stuff. But I I guess, and I was still.
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  I'm so I was struggling anyway. I was struggling so it wasn't as
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  if I wasn't brilliant. I was naturally brilliant and
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  but yeah, hold on, the other things around my life was like,
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  I was just clueless around stuff, managing myself and all
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  of that. So obviously that affected my
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  academics and also I just became very average and but by the time
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  I go to three I kind of started growing up and and then it it
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  just kind of like I just say understanding things.
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  I just say understanding life. So, so that took me out 16.
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  Then I was lucky Cortana quotes to get into Yabatech almost
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  immediately. I didn't stay at home for long.
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  I think I stayed at home for about 6 months.
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  By January 2001 I was in Yabatech and again that's also
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  not exposed another gap in the real but it's not but in school.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  Yeah this is exactly and college age and all of that so struggled
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  for one semester but I was focused on academics the
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  struggle for one semester. And then in the second semester
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  I just kind of like actually talk myself out of not being shy
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  not being to me not like really I I'm actually serious.
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  OK. I tried if Wednesday come to
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  into the mirror at some point I started telling myself you're
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  not ugly, you're handsome. Yeah.
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  This and this was even before I even knew that it was even a
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  technique. I mean I just stumbled upon it.
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  But sometimes you have to have your daily affirmations or just
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  affirmations, even if it's not daily that you're not.
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  Can I use less? You're not stupid.
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  You're not. Whatever.
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  And things like that. So I literally had to do that
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  and see. And this was the break between
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  the first semester of my first year and 2nd semester.
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  I was just on my own. My kid, my my siblings were in
• 14:05
  school. My parents are going to work.
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  So I just really had a lot of alone time.
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  But then I didn't go out. I didn't do anything.
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  I couldn't. It wasn't my wasn't in my nature
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  to get into anything. So I was.
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  You're not useless. You're handsome.
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  Yeah, this anybody who had to do that and just got to get that
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  mindset and by the time I go back into school for the 2nd
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  semester, whom we just, I just. Give it to manifestations.
• 14:32
  Exactly. I mean, it was a journey.
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  I wouldn't say all of a sudden, but I mean it was just radically
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  different. Changed my circle of friends and
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  all of that, so generally. So that's how some people still
• 14:45
  see me now and just be like, yeah, shy.
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  And I'm not shy anymore. I'm just introverted because I
• 14:51
  already realise that. I mean, I also try after I
• 14:54
  tried, you know, go out there, go to this, go to that, blah
• 14:58
  blah, just right. He was draining thing for me.
• 15:02
  Doesn't come naturally. So yes, I can keep a
• 15:04
  conversation, conversation when I go out and all of that, but
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  what would I rather do? Yes, I would rather be at home
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  chilling, doing something that stimulates, stimulates me and
• 15:16
  all of that. I still keep things done outside
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  when I have to and all of that. So, so that's essentially my
• 15:24
  childhood and one thing I actually forgot also, but it's
• 15:28
  all ties to being shy and all of that.
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  But I was a late bloomer so pull back.
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  I came late for me. So I think I was in JSS 1 where
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  they give all this stuff about when property is coming.
• 15:43
  Your voice will do this. Your this will do that.
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  You're this will do the proper man.
• 15:48
  You didn't like the team missed me completely so you know it
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  wasn't. It wasn't.
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  And then when you're in boarding school I got guys guys always
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  bragging after this I do this, I do this.
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  I do that blah blah blah, see this see my see my two birds see
• 16:06
  by this by voice get like thought of that was happening to
• 16:09
  me. So he just really felt like, OK,
• 16:13
  yeah, I'm just down here, so, so, so that's so that's pretty
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  much my childhood too. It's a combination of fun
• 16:23
  because I think growing up in the 90s, I think that was the
• 16:27
  last time anybody really had fun growing up.
• 16:30
  If you ask me, I mean that's that's that's that's subjective.
• 16:34
  But as agreed, I mean it was fun.
• 16:37
  I know at the same time even I'm almost 14 now, I still can't
• 16:43
  like sometimes it's just I mean I probably need to move on, but
• 16:48
  I need to go and do that again. But I want to do that we did
• 16:51
  knowledge I have now and that's that's not that's that, that's
• 16:56
  their that's their realistic or 19.
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  And even realising that most of the people that I was going to
• 17:01
  say they're also figuring also they also teenagers like myself
• 17:06
  and some of them were pushed train and all of that.
• 17:09
  But it's all good. All of those experiences ship me
• 17:14
  I was I was extremely bullied as well obviously.
• 17:18
  I guess if I was in if it was obvious from how I would say it
• 17:22
  yeah so so so so I was obviously bullied a lot just because
• 17:28
  sometimes it's sometimes bullying comes from a place of
• 17:33
  somebody just deciding I'm better than that guy.
• 17:35
  Not necessarily because they are bullied themselves they just
• 17:37
  want to feel good. I think humans have this need to
• 17:41
  dominate. It's just dominate the we're
• 17:46
  talking. About.
• 17:48
  How he came in to talk about France and so forth, so, so
• 17:52
  things like that. So, so now I'm a very strong
• 17:58
  anti bullying advocate. I know because of my
• 18:02
  experiences. So my experiences came from
• 18:04
  being bullied. So obviously I can't do anything
• 18:07
  on the kids side, but in the workplace I see corporate
• 18:09
  bullying and I literally speak up like because fight against
• 18:15
  that Exactly. I mean, nobody believes me
• 18:17
  anymore. In fact, I should be the bully
• 18:19
  at this point. In time, but and I look at life,
• 18:22
  right? Yeah, so.
• 18:24
  But I look at people that have been anywhere I work and I
• 18:28
  actually have, people can speak for me.
• 18:29
  Like in places where I see people are being bullied, like I
• 18:32
  usually woke up to the bully. And it's not as easy as just
• 18:35
  saying, yeah, if you're being bullied, fight back.
• 18:40
  If you if you could fight. Back Fight back.
• 18:42
  If you could fight back, you won't be bullied like.
• 18:45
  Yeah. And corporate bullying is not
• 18:47
  like if I think corporate bullying is worse.
• 18:50
  I mean because you see grown men, grown women with married,
• 18:52
  with married, with kids and somebody is treating them less
• 18:56
  than and they really can't leave because you are holding their
• 18:59
  source of livelihood and you are treating them like one thing or
• 19:04
  the other. So I, I, I mean from 1
• 19:07
  experiences and all of that I go and be like no, you you can't,
• 19:12
  you can't do that. You can't, you can't, you can't
• 19:14
  treat, you can't, you can't treat people like that.
• 19:16
  There's this, I mean nobody of any age should be bullied but I
• 19:22
  mean when you're not talking about people that come to work
• 19:25
  for you, they have families at home, they don't have that then
• 19:28
  I mean treat them with basic level of decorum.
• 19:31
  So that's a long winded. Story.
• 19:35
  Of my childhood experiences. And then and then bringing me to
• 19:40
  at least this point. Interested.
• 19:43
  Interested. I think some of the themes that
• 19:45
  really stick out for me from from your childhood #1 you
• 19:51
  realising that you are a deep thinker, right?
• 19:54
  And deep thinking is essential for critical thinking.
• 19:58
  So for me, I tell people something, I tell people the
• 20:02
  word is split into two types of people, The thing has and the
• 20:06
  doors, right? In order to achieve success in
• 20:08
  life. This is essential to achieve a
• 20:11
  balance between thinking and doing.
• 20:13
  Because he can't think all You can write half, you know,
• 20:17
  fantastic strategies, but then if you don't have fantastic
• 20:20
  execution as well, we both know that it does.
• 20:25
  It leaves actually. I just really, it's just silly.
• 20:34
  You're both finance guys, right? You're both Chartered
• 20:36
  Accountants, right? And I think in order to be
• 20:38
  successful as a chartered accountant, like it's essential
• 20:40
  to to have that deep thinking as part of your, your, your skill
• 20:45
  sets because a lot of the work that we do is analytical in
• 20:49
  nature, right. And you need that to make it.
• 20:51
  So I see that that's I see something that has influenced
• 20:55
  your success. You know, I love, I love those
• 20:58
  along those lines, right. Yeah.
• 21:01
  I think I another thing that that that sticks out for me.
• 21:05
  OK. I think let's talk about the
• 21:07
  bully parts you know later on right.
• 21:10
  That is that, that self belief, right?
• 21:14
  Finding the way to to push yourself even when you've been
• 21:20
  talked down on even when you are being when, when, when the world
• 21:24
  is against you. It is very important because
• 21:27
  remember we collect that before we hit record button.
• 21:30
  I was talking about the essence of the podcast, right?
• 21:33
  Which is the sharing the story of ordinary people doing
• 21:36
  extraordinary things right. What's with the aim to inspire
• 21:39
  people, especially the up and coming in society, right?
• 21:42
  In order for them to see that these people that you look up to
• 21:45
  in society have been through worse things that yourself and
• 21:50
  we have been able to overcome these things.
• 21:53
  So do not think that whatever you go through is anything
• 21:58
  special you can always pull through.
• 22:00
  And you know we sharing our stories, sharing our journeys
• 22:03
  just gives inspiration to people that you know they can actually
• 22:07
  make something you know vital out of their lives.
• 22:10
  You know, you been able to find that self belief.
• 22:14
  You know what whatever your methods are, you know different
• 22:17
  people have different methods. But then affirmations do really
• 22:21
  become, you know, manifestations.
• 22:23
  Affirmations do really come through with confirmations or
• 22:28
  over time. You just need to keep doing it.
• 22:31
  And you know, you've been able to find that consistently.
• 22:34
  And then I think another thing that that that struck, that
• 22:38
  struck me is your highly supervised childhood, right?
• 22:43
  You know, a lot of, a lot of successful people, the each of
• 22:48
  the likes of Ellen Mosque, right?
• 22:51
  He spoke about his, you know, strict father.
• 22:56
  Some other people talk about unsupervised childhoods.
• 23:00
  But then I was gonna put it to you because I know you are a
• 23:02
  parent now. Hmm.
• 23:05
  Yeah, right. What do you think is a right
• 23:08
  balance in raising successful children in terms of the mix of
• 23:14
  the supervision and the conservation?
• 23:16
  You know, there's always that part of people figuring things
• 23:18
  out by themselves. It helps people to be able to
• 23:24
  achieve critical reasoning. You know, you talked about how
• 23:27
  when you were thrown into the Shark Tank in teacher education,
• 23:31
  you had to start figuring things out for yourself.
• 23:34
  But if you would actually had that taste of, you know, on
• 23:37
  supervision, in figuring things out yourself, I think you would
• 23:39
  have done better at the elephant, right?
• 23:42
  So like, what was that good mix, you know, good advice, you know,
• 23:45
  parents to have in terms of supervision and, you know,
• 23:50
  giving your children freedom. Like, I don't know how you'd be
• 23:53
  able to, like advise people on that.
• 23:56
  What's the right mix? I honestly don't believe I'll be
• 24:01
  the very best person to actually answer that.
• 24:04
  So, so I have two young kids and my first is almost four and
• 24:09
  seven is almost one. And so I mean at this stage
• 24:15
  there, they completely rely on their parents for 100% of
• 24:20
  everything they need and know. But what I would say is so, so
• 24:28
  and and giving it some context. So context is very good, my dad,
• 24:36
  and maybe it's one of the questions we would have touched
• 24:38
  upon later. So when I was 8 years old,
• 24:42
  before my dad called me and asked me what I wanted to be in
• 24:47
  future, and I mean, I think that's too early to ask someone,
• 24:55
  but he asked me out what I wanted to be and all of that.
• 24:58
  So I said with all the honesty of a kid, as I wanted to be a
• 25:03
  teacher and he was like, no, I want you to be a chartered
• 25:06
  accountant. So.
• 25:09
  I don't know. I don't know who I mean.
• 25:14
  I've brilliant or well, maybe what you're exposed to.
• 25:16
  But I don't know any Ato that really understands what the
• 25:20
  concept of a chartered accountant.
• 25:21
  It's not even just an accountant.
• 25:23
  Say I want it to be chartered accountant, OK?
• 25:27
  I mean, because my, my, my. OK was just a case of you, my
• 25:31
  dad, and I trust you to make the best decision for for for me.
• 25:36
  Yeah, exactly. And like, if you say chartered
• 25:39
  account, so he could have said anything that day and we would
• 25:43
  have actually started on that journey, could have said I
• 25:46
  wanted to be an engineer, right. OK.
• 25:48
  I mean, because we trust our parents, I mean in Italy,
• 25:54
  especially at that age, people that have provided for you and
• 25:58
  all of that. So from that point, to my mind,
• 26:03
  from what I can remember from that point, everything that he
• 26:07
  did was putting me on that path of being a chartered accountant.
• 26:15
  So. And he was very strict about it.
• 26:19
  A parallel I can draw is the Jackson 5 or Michael Jackson,
• 26:24
  the story about Dad and. How?
• 26:27
  Like how I really grew to the five kids.
• 26:30
  Yeah, exactly. You is it.
• 26:32
  Gonna be music superstars, blah blah blah and nothing else
• 26:36
  matters. So and Michael thought about
• 26:40
  tell stories of his childhood. I mean you almost feel like,
• 26:44
  wow, but all this while you were world dominating superstar,
• 26:47
  you're smiling in front of the cameras.
• 26:48
  But this was so it feels it feels that way.
• 26:52
  But then also realising that all of that was done out of love, so
• 26:58
  it wasn't. That was that word.
• 27:02
  Now it's not that political. It's not hate.
• 27:05
  It's not whatever so toxic. It's not.
• 27:08
  Yeah, it's not. Toxic.
• 27:09
  Toxic. Yeah.
• 27:11
  Ah, OK, I love it all. Good, that.
• 27:14
  Far maybe. At least from the person doing
• 27:17
  it. It's not that they they they
• 27:19
  want to be toxic, but sometimes they can have toxic effects.
• 27:23
  Maybe that's the way I would say it.
• 27:25
  OK. Yeah, in terms of your
• 27:26
  intentions and your actions, right.
• 27:28
  Exact intentions might be positive, the action.
• 27:32
  OK, so for some reason I didn't just get why my dad was so
• 27:41
  strict with me. Like in terms of muscle this
• 27:43
  muscle distance this, go and read your book.
• 27:46
  Go and do this, go and do go and like just a kid.
• 27:51
  Like let me be a kid. Like, yeah, yeah.
• 27:55
  If I come anything less than, I mean if you are 15 class and I
• 28:00
  get now like 25th position or something like that, like that's
• 28:04
  gonna be a very terrible holiday.
• 28:07
  Like seriously, I wish. I wish I was back in school
• 28:10
  because you wouldn't let me as it won't let me rest.
• 28:16
  I know so the good holidays for me at home was just when I've
• 28:21
  done well in school. So it was just it was just like
• 28:25
  continuous pounding, pounding like this is how.
• 28:29
  So it was strict around a lot of things.
• 28:33
  No this, no this, no that, no that.
• 28:35
  Just focus, just focus, just focus.
• 28:38
  And so why that context is important is the focus was very
• 28:44
  good for me adventure writing. So I started my icon journey
• 28:50
  just shortly after my 19th birthday.
• 28:55
  Qualified when I was 21. Yeah, just before my 22nd
• 28:59
  birthday. I mean the the timing is
• 29:01
  whatever you do eights. Yes, I did ATS.
• 29:06
  Wow. Did Andy and then use Andy to
• 29:10
  start it as three and then two years later I was qualified,
• 29:15
  Qualified in 2006. Yeah.
• 29:19
  So, So when I actually started oh, by OK before that when I got
• 29:27
  myself so to speak, growing up, when I got myself when I was in
• 29:31
  Yabatech, I was the best student in accounting in the accounting
• 29:34
  department for for a very short while buzzing and I finished
• 29:39
  with the distinction. And So what I'm trying to say is
• 29:41
  that all of that I did like instilled some sort of focused
• 29:46
  discipline, those qualities that ordinarily, without the
• 29:51
  supervision, I would just be running around being like
• 29:55
  telling myself I'm being free and all of that.
• 29:58
  And but the truth is, I hated every ohh.
• 30:02
  Not everybody hated it. I just hated the fact that I
• 30:06
  would say you didn't let me have the childhood or that growing up
• 30:12
  stuff that I wanted that that I actually saw that people having
• 30:16
  people that were not as strictly supervised but then we still got
• 30:21
  to the same, the same place because.
• 30:24
  Destination. Still did the icon with the
• 30:26
  exactly. So they got to live a little and
• 30:30
  they were still disciplined enough to take the academic part
• 30:34
  seriously. And meanwhile my case was all
• 30:37
  just that. That, that I mean and that
• 30:40
  pressure is not unique to me, but I feel kids really can't
• 30:45
  handle handle that and shouldn't handle that to be honest.
• 30:49
  So the answer the long winded answer today is yeah, there has
• 30:52
  to be some sort of balance between being strict.
• 31:00
  So definitely parents must supervise their kids like that's
• 31:03
  that's you know, whatever. And they must teach them
• 31:07
  qualities like focus, discipline, as a in certain
• 31:14
  ways. But you don't want to risk like
• 31:18
  doing it too much. And then it breathes it.
• 31:23
  It kind of breathes some sort of resentment.
• 31:26
  And to be fair, I think it was only it took a while to really
• 31:31
  get back to that place with my dad.
• 31:32
  Because in the mind of a kid, all this I'm saying is because
• 31:37
  I'm now 40, I've gone through whatever.
• 31:39
  I now understand, like that man didn't hit me.
• 31:41
  I really thought my dad hated me as a kid.
• 31:43
  I I no, no. So and why?
• 31:47
  When you hear the 30 of the childhood house believe in
• 31:50
  school? I told my from my dad needed.
• 31:52
  Me another that so you can difficult.
• 31:55
  Exactly. You can say that starts to
• 31:57
  affect the kids psyche and so if your kids at least not until 15,
• 32:04
  you shouldn't go through that. Life is hard already.
• 32:07
  But then, I don't also feel that parents should cuddle their kids
• 32:10
  too much, to the point where they can't even function to in
• 32:14
  in in in in life. So finding the balance is an
• 32:19
  obvious answer. Making the balance or getting
• 32:23
  what the balance is is then like now difficult.
• 32:26
  How? How?
• 32:28
  How? Did you?
• 32:30
  Yeah, I I don't know. I and I am hoping to have some
• 32:33
  time to figure it out. I mean like I.
• 32:35
  Said When it's four, yeah. Yeah, so, so, so.
• 32:38
  So, yeah, yes. Exactly.
• 32:41
  But something actually actively do think about.
• 32:45
  I mean, so in my own case, if I had said at any point that I
• 32:48
  wasn't going to be a chartered accountant and all of that, I
• 32:51
  would have instantly disappointed my dad.
• 32:55
  And no kid wants to do that. He's already pressure.
• 32:58
  So any time I did stuff I was in in like you would let me know
• 33:02
  that he was disappointed. I mean, in addition to beatings
• 33:06
  and all of that, but, but you let me know.
• 33:08
  But I think it's that feeling like, I don't want to disappoint
• 33:10
  my dad. I don't want to disappoint my
• 33:12
  dad like that. Kind of like really pushed me in
• 33:15
  that in that in that in that in that space of the pressure I had
• 33:25
  as as a as a kid. So hopefully I find the balance
• 33:31
  of so first of all I'm not going to tell any of my kids I want
• 33:34
  them to be this. I want them to be that.
• 33:36
  I'm definitely not not not doing that.
• 33:39
  What I I would try and do is just watch.
• 33:41
  So I think if once you watch kids, you just inherently know
• 33:46
  where they gravitate. To what?
• 33:47
  What? What they're capable of.
• 33:48
  Right. What they're capable of and all
• 33:50
  of that. So they are not forced into a
• 33:52
  box. And then when you and them and
• 33:57
  you and the kids kind of like come to OK, this is what you're
• 34:00
  good artistically, you're good. And I guess we love like having
• 34:05
  deep thinker and all of that. I've realised that a lot of
• 34:09
  there are a lot of ways to be successful to have chartered
• 34:13
  account and you don't have to. I mean, 10 years ago, how many
• 34:16
  people are doing podcasts and how many people were Instagram?
• 34:20
  I will tell you my story. I'll tell you my story.
• 34:24
  There are so many jobs. There are so many jobs that we
• 34:27
  have right now that didn't even exist, that didn't exist.
• 34:31
  And I'm sure, yeah, I know there are some jobs that are, I would
• 34:34
  say, timeless, like so you always need doctors, blah, blah,
• 34:38
  blah. And sometimes it's it's in a bit
• 34:40
  to play it safe. Go for this safe, whatever.
• 34:45
  Then yeah. Actually miss out on letting
• 34:49
  people really really like get their potential like whatever it
• 34:56
  is. You know so if I wasn't each
• 34:59
  other. Yeah.
• 34:59
  Discovered exactly And even really make the impact in the
• 35:03
  world they're supposed to make. So there are people just stuck.
• 35:06
  I mean they have all the talent in the world but they are stuck
• 35:09
  in and I don't I don't denigrate it out because I wanted.
• 35:14
  But they're stuck in a nine to five that is totally limiting.
• 35:20
  In nine to five you can only. Yeah exactly.
• 35:23
  You can only walk to your employers rules and all of that.
• 35:27
  So if if if you wanted to do something but you're not really
• 35:32
  free. So some people, some people like
• 35:34
  that, someone like that structure.
• 35:35
  For other people it's like they really want to do something
• 35:37
  else. But from their childhood they
• 35:40
  had been forced to think you you must be this you must be this.
• 35:42
  You must be that. And even when they try to find
• 35:45
  themselves as adult, like they've already gone to.
• 35:49
  On the road. Add that to to to start to
• 35:53
  change and all of that is stuff. So, so I mean, I won't say
• 35:59
  there's one right or wrong answer, but obviously, like with
• 36:02
  anything in life, everything, everything is balanced.
• 36:05
  Yeah, OK. Interesting.
• 36:06
  You know, African parents can tend to be quite pushy.
• 36:09
  And you know, I, I actually, I can't relate for one as well,
• 36:13
  right. I would talk to Carter like is
• 36:14
  there And then I'll tell you a bit about my story.
• 36:17
  So I'm like great of my own parents.
• 36:19
  Others like who try and be professional because I feel like
• 36:22
  that is a social insurance. Like if you're a professional,
• 36:26
  if you're one of the core professionals, like you can't go
• 36:28
  hungry, you know things can't go wrong for you, especially
• 36:32
  financially, right. So I think like when I was in
• 36:35
  secondary school I was a science.
• 36:37
  Then they feel like ohh this boy is academically bright.
• 36:39
  OK then at some point there's like talks about ohh becoming a
• 36:43
  doctor blah blah blah. But then I was always very poor
• 36:45
  at math. So it's one thing always, you
• 36:48
  know, tell people to inspire them.
• 36:50
  You know, at some point I used to teach, you know, ACA icon
• 36:54
  students, right. But then, yeah, trust me, I I
• 36:56
  filled mathematics twice at all level.
• 37:00
  I was very, very poor at math. You know, when, you know, you
• 37:03
  remember John, we used to write jamb.
• 37:05
  Sure. Sure.
• 37:06
  Sure, I scored 288 on my jam, right?
• 37:10
  But trust me, I would have scored over 300.
• 37:14
  It was because of mathematics. I think I saw just 5050 in
• 37:18
  Mathematics Ohh. And I still have time.
• 37:22
  And I see had no, that was because I had to push myself,
• 37:25
  right? Because I had to push.
• 37:27
  I really had to push myself, right.
• 37:29
  So for me, when it came to academics, I was like always the
• 37:33
  high flyer. But when it came to mathematics,
• 37:35
  I always performed poorly. And that's because, like, I had
• 37:38
  really bad teachers who would like pressure you make you feel
• 37:41
  stupid and all because you don't know the numbers.
• 37:44
  But when I go to university, I tried to discover that there was
• 37:48
  a method behind the madness. So what I wanted to like pick
• 37:51
  something for for Heidi. I wanted to peak ask
• 37:54
  communication and my father told me that you can only pick that
• 37:58
  if you know you pay your school fees by yourself.
• 38:02
  I did. I did that.
• 38:03
  Wow they die is cast was like professional blah blah blah.
• 38:08
  And then OK what else did I like?
• 38:10
  Enjoying secondary school. I used to like economics and I'm
• 38:14
  going to tell you a very funny story about why I like the
• 38:16
  economics because you know growing up my mom was always
• 38:19
  about ohh economised things in the household.
• 38:22
  You guys know how to economise and that was why.
• 38:26
  That was why I gotta like economics something.
• 38:28
  OK, let me let out try to eat out like.
• 38:33
  It is. Either right?
• 38:38
  That is one of hope economics. Yeah, right.
• 38:42
  Yeah, right. Correct.
• 38:43
  I mean, I actually for a long time I thought accounting was
• 38:46
  banking, so. Yeah.
• 38:51
  So I support you know when I finished, well OK, I finished
• 38:54
  secondary school and then my father was like, ohh would you
• 38:57
  do Icon in my head I was like, what's Icon about Like anything.
• 39:00
  I always had this mentality of I can do all things through Christ
• 39:04
  austerities me. So he was like, oh you do Icon.
• 39:06
  I was like, OK, as long as you keep busy at that was like, who
• 39:11
  I can see. And he always wanted me to be a
• 39:13
  chartered accountant. OK.
• 39:15
  I'll push this through. I'll push this through.
• 39:17
  And you know, I remember the day I got inducted I think, OK.
• 39:21
  The day my father results of Icon came out and then it was
• 39:25
  confirmed that, you know I'll be chartered accountant.
• 39:28
  My father say yes. That is my son.
• 39:29
  I was like, whoa, wait a minute, love you.
• 39:35
  You know, I think the parents here are usually very proud of
• 39:38
  these things, you know? Yeah, I mean, I felt it.
• 39:41
  I actually felt it when when in fact.
• 39:45
  So at some point, I actually felt like the only time I was
• 39:49
  good enough for for my parents was when I did anything
• 39:54
  academically. Any other thing didn't matter.
• 39:57
  So like I mentioned when I was the best student in the class,
• 40:00
  everywhere, I want my dad to be like, have you met my son?
• 40:03
  He's the best student in his class.
• 40:04
  Have you met Peter? Is the best.
• 40:07
  They said. Yeah, but one thing I remember,
• 40:11
  you know, my father also telling me then was that he told me you
• 40:15
  can be you, you you can be a professional, right?
• 40:22
  And still be a mass communicator.
• 40:25
  But then you can't be a mass communicator and be like a
• 40:29
  finance professional, for example.
• 40:30
  And the thing that kind of kept me going and many years down the
• 40:35
  line, yeah, I'm still a full time finance professional, but
• 40:39
  now I have my own podcast. So here's down the line.
• 40:44
  Decided to make sense to me that OK, this man wanted me to be
• 40:47
  relevant in society, to be resourceful.
• 40:50
  But I think where a lot of African parents know Gary Bronk
• 40:54
  is, you know, explaining the method behind the madness with
• 40:58
  these kids, Like they want you to be successful in life, right.
• 41:01
  They want you to be relevant and society, They want you to earn
• 41:04
  respect, you know, in society, right?
• 41:08
  In, you know, amongst your peers, you know, in the society
• 41:12
  generally to them as well, right.
• 41:14
  But as well, they should always try to create that balance.
• 41:17
  So for me, I have to chase that balance because yeah, finance,
• 41:20
  yeah, talented, you're gifted, you have the mental capacity.
• 41:27
  But is this really what you want to do?
• 41:29
  Is this how you really want to impact the world?
• 41:32
  No. So you can always achieve that
• 41:35
  balance between, OK, I do something that I'm gifted at,
• 41:39
  right. And also I I do something that I
• 41:43
  have developed skills and competences around.
• 41:46
  So I think that that balance is actually just, you know, very
• 41:49
  much are required and apparently we ended 21st century.
• 41:53
  We we have a lot of professions like you said earlier that never
• 41:57
  existed previously and people can call professionals and also
• 42:01
  have like sidekicks as well. So it's just, this can actually
• 42:06
  be main income, income stuff, Yeah, I mean some people are
• 42:11
  just making money off podcasts and people are making money just
• 42:17
  be enough for on YouTube on TikTok.
• 42:21
  Like that's that's their main stuff.
• 42:23
  So yeah, digital economy now. Exactly.
• 42:28
  I mean at some point tech judgments, you were computer
• 42:33
  scientist or you should just not to use computer, but now look at
• 42:36
  how how does actually change. So I mean just to write off that
• 42:40
  aspect of the the discussion. I know.
• 42:43
  So for me it's what what I what I'm ohh.
• 42:49
  What I'm trying to get to is that I think our parents focused
• 42:54
  a lot on what we're going to do professionally, what we're going
• 43:02
  to do to make money. By the same time, because you
• 43:07
  are raising the human life is a lot more than that.
• 43:10
  So life should be about raising a well-rounded person, person
• 43:15
  beyond just ohh say. I'm raising my kids to be a
• 43:19
  doctor. I'm raising my kids to be an
• 43:21
  account. I'm raising my kids to be A, to
• 43:23
  be a I feel that's just one books.
• 43:29
  And as humans we are not. We have capabilities beyond
• 43:34
  that. If we eventually we get to put
• 43:37
  ourselves in a box on our own, I think that's fine.
• 43:40
  I mean, because again, a lot of people like structure.
• 43:43
  They like to know as you're putting this is what's happening
• 43:47
  next, so that that's fine. That would never go away.
• 43:50
  But I think as parents, parents should encourage their kids to
• 43:54
  dream widely and part of it is just be well-rounded person.
• 44:01
  Yeah, no academics. If you do know academics, what
• 44:03
  else do you know? If it's sports like I had people
• 44:06
  in secondary school then that were very good in sports, like
• 44:09
  very good, run 100 metres, blah blah blah.
• 44:12
  But then because. And I feel like if they had gone
• 44:15
  into that professionally, they would have actually, really.
• 44:19
  Yes, they would have tried. But their parents were kind of
• 44:22
  like forcing them to be like, no, you must be an accountant
• 44:28
  must be in this, you must be a dad, blah, blah, blah.
• 44:31
  And then you can and you won't even good at the academic stuff.
• 44:34
  But just put them on the video. This guy, as I've said there's
• 44:36
  this guy by head. I just coming like put the guy
• 44:39
  on the field playing football. He's on the track and field like
• 44:42
  skills so, so, so good. They have to repeat classes.
• 44:45
  I know that because that was in and it's just a case of that.
• 44:49
  I mean, it's just a case of if is talent, we're nurtured in
• 44:54
  such a way that it doesn't have to be something, but then we can
• 44:59
  take whatever he has in himself, his talents and all of that can
• 45:03
  actually grow as just as a person as well.
• 45:07
  OK, yeah, school is this, things like that.
• 45:10
  So you just generally find that balance to say OK, yeah, be a
• 45:14
  well-rounded person as opposed to just training people, like
• 45:18
  just training them to be a setting a certain thing.
• 45:21
  So, so that's definitely what I'll do differently.
• 45:26
  Just so let let let's talk about your, your career before your
• 45:29
  career journey before the creation of my, my CFO Ng,
• 45:33
  right. So you grab beauty to recover
• 45:36
  the Chartered Accountants. Yeah, A lot of what we've been
• 45:39
  discussing basically is about the journey, the road to
• 45:42
  recovery. What was the journey, you know,
• 45:46
  after becoming the chartered accountant?
• 45:48
  You know, before you created that?
• 45:50
  My CFO, Ng? All right.
• 45:54
  So, I mean, that's actually straightforward and very, very
• 45:58
  short. Uh, so I qualified in 2006.
• 46:02
  Like I said, like I said, but I just finished my PhD at at the
• 46:07
  time, so I went for service and I kind of.
• 46:18
  So I I wanted to get a BSc. So because I was worried about
• 46:22
  my HND, I actually finished with the second class.
• 46:25
  Sorry. Well, the equivalent of this if
• 46:29
  this way equivalent of each other.
• 46:31
  The equivalent of of a second class lower.
• 46:36
  So that was lower credit. So in fact, at that point, yeah,
• 46:40
  so, so, so at that point it just felt like my life was over even
• 46:45
  before it started. Like nobody would.
• 46:47
  So I was qualified, was qualified chartered accountant,
• 46:50
  but I had an HND lower credit. So because of that I had to,
• 46:57
  which is a good thing anyway. So that's because of that I had
• 47:00
  to get a BSc. So instead of working after my
• 47:04
  service here, I went into trying to get a BSc.
• 47:08
  So I got a BSc from Oxford Brooks University in the UK to
• 47:15
  so. So in fact I mean because
• 47:17
  without the packaging and all of that, in fact that's what you
• 47:19
  see everywhere. You wouldn't even see that I did
• 47:22
  it, change it somewhere and I have a BSc from university, blah
• 47:26
  blah. So, Long story short, I my
• 47:30
  career officially started in late 2008.
• 47:38
  I spent about four months in First Pension Custodian Nigeria
• 47:45
  Limited, the subsidiary of the First Bank Holdings.
• 47:49
  So it's a pension house I'm collecting and it's but I wasn't
• 47:52
  doing anything accounting related, actually interviewed by
• 47:56
  an accounting rule, blah blah. But they were like, Nah, go and
• 47:58
  start at the contributions department.
• 48:01
  So pretty much what I was doing there was once you make a
• 48:05
  personal contribution, my job was just to enter your details
• 48:10
  into the system that we've seen your money.
• 48:14
  So let's, let's credit. Yeah.
• 48:17
  And all of that, so luckily, but before then obviously I'd had
• 48:24
  all my my life was planned to go into accounting.
• 48:31
  So like talking about from my childhood.
• 48:33
  So it's by plan. My life was planned that way.
• 48:35
  So that was like a detour. So I obviously applied to all
• 48:41
  the BIG4, Deloitte, PwC and then KPMG.
• 48:47
  I was this close to getting into KPMG, had declared couple at,
• 48:50
  cleared their test, I cleared the interviews and I was
• 48:53
  supposed to meet with your partner and then that's when
• 48:57
  they realised that my BSc was from Oxford Brooks and they
• 49:01
  didn't accept it. And I was, I was, I was
• 49:03
  distraught because, yeah, shut up because I mean, I felt I've
• 49:10
  written about this on my LinkedIn because I felt that
• 49:14
  yes, they had a policy and so they won't call you to come for
• 49:19
  these interviews or test if you don't meet certain requirements.
• 49:22
  So probably somebody missed it by just saying BC I didn't think
• 49:26
  they were calling each and this then which kind of like
• 49:28
  vindicated my decision to go get a BSc.
• 49:32
  So by then and very competitive obviously.
• 49:36
  So clear the test, clear the couple of interviews and it was
• 49:40
  just the partner and everybody. My friends that were in KPMG,
• 49:43
  they were telling me that the partners, the partner interviews
• 49:45
  formality because you've really gone through.
• 49:49
  They had passed vigorous. Yeah, exactly.
• 49:52
  So was already excited that, OK, this was going to be my first
• 49:55
  real job and all of a sudden just called me and said maybe
• 50:00
  this is from say, yeah, I'm like, oh, sorry, we don't accept
• 50:04
  that. So what?
• 50:06
  So that's fine actually, in the sense that, yes, that's the
• 50:11
  criteria. But what hurt me the most was
• 50:13
  the fact that ohh yeah, I didn't meet that criteria, but then I
• 50:18
  cleared stuff that shows that I'm beyond.
• 50:23
  Just. That piece of paper?
• 50:25
  Exactly. I'm confident enough.
• 50:26
  Like, yeah, I wasn't supposed to make it true, but then you miss
• 50:30
  something and I made it true. And then all these barriers that
• 50:32
  you put I skilled them but then you still think I'm not good
• 50:38
  enough to to join you so so that's what hurt me and not even
• 50:43
  the fact that they had the criteria for for whatever that
• 50:48
  so obviously and the other ones were not were not coming
• 50:52
  through. So on my 24th birthday in 2008 I
• 50:58
  actually was just that I just I just went online.
• 51:01
  I just I was just I was searching.
• 51:03
  I was not actively searching. So there was yeah it was me
• 51:07
  having my BSE from Oxford Brooks.
• 51:09
  I keep saying it because obviously this part of it like
• 51:12
  you have a UK BBC had icon at the earliest IDC.
• 51:17
  I was in my final finals exam. I know.
• 51:21
  So generally in my head, like like people should be rushing to
• 51:27
  to to employ me. To help you.
• 51:30
  Was to have me on board like and and yes, maybe I had a lower
• 51:34
  credit and none of that, but you know, it's brilliant.
• 51:37
  And not just even brilliant academically like I was just
• 51:40
  really ready to work and all of that.
• 51:43
  So anyway, I ended up just going to work for this chartered
• 51:49
  accounting firm in somewhere in Oshodi in Lagos, and you know
• 51:54
  that you made a mistake when on the first day they give you a
• 51:56
  laptop and then you use a laptop to start searching for other
• 51:59
  jobs. Yeah.
• 52:04
  How did I end up? Yeah, and I mean, so the idea
• 52:06
  was gonna pay me 20,000 naira and in fact he told me that I
• 52:11
  should be paying him because he was going to train me.
• 52:15
  I know ohh. And for some reason for some
• 52:19
  reason, I just so no, I wasn't forced.
• 52:22
  He didn't force me. But I decided to accept the
• 52:25
  offer. So it wasn't like he tricked me
• 52:28
  or whatever. I decided to accept the offer.
• 52:29
  But mainly I started that in my head.
• 52:31
  I was just like you know what? Walking the place for like 6
• 52:34
  months is a chartered accounting firm.
• 52:36
  And then you can at least have that you're not home alone,
• 52:40
  you're not, you're not bored, blah blah blah.
• 52:42
  All of those things were were playing.
• 52:45
  Yeah. And and I wanted to also prove
• 52:47
  that I could get the job without my parents.
• 52:49
  So that's I was just, I was just joking.
• 52:52
  I I think people should should leverage any connections that
• 52:54
  they have that they don't even try.
• 52:57
  And so after a month, as in yeah, I sat down with my
• 53:02
  parents. I was still living at home at
• 53:03
  the time and just OK like this, this isn't working.
• 53:07
  And so I used my mom's connection.
• 53:10
  My mom worked in first bank for about 33 years.
• 53:12
  So I just used my mom's connections to get into first
• 53:16
  pension. I wrote the test and I love
• 53:17
  that. I mean, our connection was just
• 53:19
  to actually get me in front of someone that would say OK, yeah,
• 53:22
  right. So I wasn't nepotism or anything
• 53:25
  or things like that. I wrote the test, I cleared it
• 53:27
  and the man told me if I didn't clear that, irrespective of the
• 53:30
  relationship he had with my mom, I was going to get in.
• 53:33
  So I got in. So I stayed for four months.
• 53:37
  That was November 2008 to March 2009.
• 53:42
  I was lucky to get into Deloitte.
• 53:44
  So wow, for me that laughs at long last.
• 53:49
  And in fact the funny story because first pension was
• 53:53
  awesome, very awesome, very good working environment.
• 53:56
  But because obviously I wanted to do something accounting
• 53:59
  related, and I mean it didn't matter if they had put me in
• 54:02
  accounting, internship, whatever, I would have loved it,
• 54:05
  but I didn't love what I was doing.
• 54:06
  But what I was doing was working on Excel and Excel In 2008.
• 54:11
  People didn't even know how to use Excel now, but except in
• 54:13
  2008 was completely the people trained was still it was a big
• 54:18
  deal, still new, I know. So when I went for my Deloitte
• 54:21
  interview, there's after we I met with senior manager Rabah.
• 54:30
  After a while they just told us, I think they're about 10 of us.
• 54:33
  They just give us laptops and told us to just do.
• 54:38
  I can't remember what they told us to do at that point.
• 54:41
  At that point they were like that was what I was literally
• 54:44
  doing every single day at First Fashion Consortium in fact.
• 54:49
  So one of the guys that came for the time we could not even open
• 54:53
  Microsoft Word like it even know what the icon look like as and
• 55:00
  so at that point. So it was just a case of like
• 55:02
  see how God works or see how the world works like wonders because
• 55:08
  I didn't like my job but I was entering Excel so I know how to
• 55:12
  do excel this that blah blah blah.
• 55:14
  And I just came for an interview and all of a sudden there's this
• 55:16
  Excel tests and they gave us 10 minutes to do some I think in 5
• 55:21
  minutes I was done and I was the one that was done.
• 55:25
  So at that point that Steven stay having confidence that yes,
• 55:27
  I'm getting this job because I like I could see every other
• 55:30
  person struggling. I was, I was, I was done like,
• 55:33
  you know so I got it to delight in March 2009.
• 55:38
  But it wasn't in Lagos. I was in the Port Harcourt
• 55:40
  office. I stayed till 2017 state for
• 55:48
  eight years. In between I was seconded to the
• 55:51
  US because I was so I stayed in in Dallas for almost 2 years,
• 55:57
  came back, became a manager, managed some of our biggest
• 56:03
  companies in Nigeria. If if first job, my very first
• 56:08
  big managerial job was the big clients that we just got from
• 56:12
  KPMG at the time and indeed from they they retired from of KPMG
• 56:19
  and kept to delight And then somehow somehow I was handed the
• 56:24
  yeah the job to to manage and and I just became a manager So
• 56:29
  that that kind of job should have been for a senior manager.
• 56:33
  So in some quarters of people like they're setting this guy
• 56:37
  up, why would they give him this massive job?
• 56:40
  And then the other side of it is exactly and the other side of it
• 56:44
  was like, is it not we trust him.
• 56:47
  That's actually, but if anybody can handle it, Ajibola can
• 56:50
  handle it. So I spent at least the the time
• 56:54
  before that like building myself building that reputation to the
• 56:58
  point where it got to the point where they were like, yeah, we
• 57:01
  have this massive job where we have this guy that we just made
• 57:03
  the manager and I'm talking big complex in that listed on the
• 57:10
  New York Stock Exchange in Europe, one of our group
• 57:17
  reporting subsidiary reporting all of those forever, I mean
• 57:21
  people are not accounting inclined to understand but.
• 57:23
  That's, yeah. Yeah, that's massive.
• 57:28
  That's massive. Exactly.
• 57:32
  Exactly. And then you you're you're the
• 57:35
  big four as well. That you understand what happens
• 57:38
  again and you also understand what happens again with things
• 57:44
  like practise review. So is that just you see what
• 57:48
  you're doing to the clients at the same time?
• 57:50
  Yeah, the the, the practise is looking at you to say that
• 57:55
  you're actually representing correctly.
• 57:57
  I know. Anyway, so I stayed for a while.
• 58:02
  I stayed until 2017 before I then left to become a CFO at
• 58:11
  what I'll call it mid size, mid sized company.
• 58:16
  So it wasn't a plan, to be honest.
• 58:22
  But he said the question of of my leaves, right.
• 58:26
  Because for me, yeah. I think when I was I worked with
• 58:30
  two of the big first enemies. Yeah PwC, KPMG, yeah and the UK
• 58:35
  and also how to move on to like a mid size firm.
• 58:40
  I remember when when I was with PwC a senior manager told me
• 58:44
  something he said the Big four is a great place to start your
• 58:48
  career but not really a great place to end it.
• 58:53
  And I was like wow and I'm still an associates like for Acedo
• 58:57
  body that to be telling me this and he was at the verge of you
• 58:59
  know leaving the firm you know and he called some of us and you
• 59:02
  know advised us that learn as much as you can in this space.
• 59:05
  It's a fantastic platform, you know, for you to learn, pick up
• 59:09
  a lot of skills, competences. But these skills are
• 59:11
  competences, right? Are more valued, more valuable
• 59:15
  outside of the Big four environment.
• 59:17
  Like if you know you, you're ambitious, it's a springboard
• 59:21
  springboard for you to go into the world you know to shine and
• 59:25
  let you like China, like interested, interested.
• 59:28
  So over time I understand that piece of advice.
• 59:32
  So for you, right. Like what?
• 59:34
  What actually inspired? Actually, we were from the Big
• 59:36
  Four. Yeah.
• 59:38
  So the truth is my overall plan from day one when I mean they
• 59:46
  went so they won, I don't I can't remember what day one was,
• 59:49
  was to be the CFO of a large listed company in Nigeria or or
• 59:54
  well anywhere in the world. So it's more like and I don't
• 59:58
  know why but this, this company always comes to my head Cadbury
• 1:00:02
  or maybe because I had my dad say it at some point.
• 1:00:04
  So when you're supposed to say 4 of Cadbury, you just say that's
• 1:00:08
  actually not do So from day one I always knew that that's that's
• 1:00:12
  always been my over hacking plan.
• 1:00:16
  The CFO of that kind of that kind of company.
• 1:00:20
  So with that kind of organisation, yeah.
• 1:00:23
  So even on joining delights and to be honest, I mean I love
• 1:00:28
  delight, but at that start point literally could have been
• 1:00:31
  anyone. None of them are like was it
• 1:00:34
  like I like this was about this world or whatever.
• 1:00:36
  So at that point it was whoever, whoever takes me first is where
• 1:00:41
  I was going to go. I learn.
• 1:00:45
  So my plan was to learn to use to go and spend 2-3 years in in
• 1:00:50
  one of them. If I had always said that it
• 1:00:53
  didn't make me senior that's the deal resign.
• 1:00:56
  So I'll do associate work and and when I first joined and I
• 1:01:00
  saw how the seniors were doing so far ahead, I was like, ah,
• 1:01:05
  can you sing it today? Today.
• 1:01:06
  I dropped my letter and so so my plan was to spend two years in a
• 1:01:12
  big four and then moved to the industry.
• 1:01:15
  So the industry planner always been there from from day one.
• 1:01:18
  So what happened? I mean life has other plans.
• 1:01:22
  So what happened was I was actually very good at what I did
• 1:01:28
  in auditing and it's not because of auditing itself.
• 1:01:31
  Again, it's in the background from where I started to have my
• 1:01:34
  dad was drilling me. So I was already good in
• 1:01:37
  financial accounting in order that did Icon when I was still
• 1:01:41
  very young, when I didn't have any other responsibilities, I
• 1:01:45
  read them each and the accounting, I did a BSc in
• 1:01:49
  accounting as well. I've done ACA.
• 1:01:51
  So a lot of those things are already kind of like shaped so.
• 1:01:57
  So when we when I started working, I was already 2-3 steps
• 1:02:02
  ahead of people that we started together exactly.
• 1:02:06
  And in fact at some point I started leading jobs with people
• 1:02:09
  that have been in the firm before me quickly.
• 1:02:13
  So, so, so. I mean, it's not bragging.
• 1:02:17
  I mean it's the fact. But then, even if it's bragging,
• 1:02:19
  it's fine. It was very clear that was a
• 1:02:22
  high flyer. There's my friend who is in the
• 1:02:25
  UK as well as the both of us. It was just very obvious that.
• 1:02:28
  So you know when somebody just joined within three, 4-5 months,
• 1:02:32
  like every year, your name's on everybody's lips.
• 1:02:36
  We were in the pocket of peace. And then the guys in Lagos where
• 1:02:40
  those arena names like Ajibola. So because of that, because of
• 1:02:47
  that almost every single year that was with delight, every
• 1:02:51
  single one except for the last year and that was a business
• 1:02:55
  case. I got a promotion.
• 1:02:58
  So he kept on shifting the, should I say the the goalpost
• 1:03:08
  so, so if they had, if at some point I felt I was stagnant or
• 1:03:12
  not moving, then maybe it would have made my decision easy to
• 1:03:16
  move out. Easier, Faster.
• 1:03:18
  Faster but it just felt like so next year from Asia senior
• 1:03:23
  Associates, the senior one, Senior 2, Senior three, good to
• 1:03:28
  us steady state manager like that.
• 1:03:33
  So you just felt like every single.
• 1:03:38
  Yeah, with the promotion and all of that, that felt like a new
• 1:03:44
  challenge, something. So there's always something to
• 1:03:47
  look forward to, but actually sensitive, an extra incentive
• 1:03:52
  one. And then naturally with humans
• 1:03:54
  as well, you don't want to leave your comfort zone as it was
• 1:03:58
  comfortable. So every year, I mean, I'm
• 1:04:00
  working in a great place. I mean, it's stressful to work.
• 1:04:03
  So I don't even blame that on the company, on the firm itself
• 1:04:06
  or I don't blame it on any BIG4. It's just stressful working
• 1:04:10
  there. But it's not because of how they
• 1:04:12
  are structured. It's because of what we have to
• 1:04:14
  deliver and what we have to deliver to the client.
• 1:04:18
  And all of that is what makes it stressful and not if so I even
• 1:04:21
  think all the firms are trying and trying to make it easy.
• 1:04:25
  But then the the demands never stop.
• 1:04:27
  And that's just the finance world generally like you never
• 1:04:31
  sleeps. So why why?
• 1:04:32
  Why should you? Why should you sleep at all?
• 1:04:35
  So I was comfortable. I was comfortable knowing that
• 1:04:39
  if I just did what I needed to do, well I I will get promoted
• 1:04:44
  and also so I didn't leave. So somebody is supposed to be
• 1:04:46
  two years that's end up spending eight years.
• 1:04:50
  But deep down but deep down if we if we are not met and had the
• 1:04:54
  discussion then like just be like I don't want to be here.
• 1:04:58
  I don't want to be here. So you go to people that used to
• 1:05:01
  hear me, just be like, OK, why are you saying you don't want to
• 1:05:04
  but you don't want to be here, but.
• 1:05:06
  When you were. Doing an award, they will call
• 1:05:10
  your name when they say they've done this Singapore, these
• 1:05:14
  things there. But I don't want to.
• 1:05:15
  I don't want to be here because the truth is eventually I think,
• 1:05:18
  I think one knocked it out of the park for me eventually was I
• 1:05:23
  looked at. So I was in audits obviously,
• 1:05:26
  but we did a lot. I mean you start in audits but
• 1:05:30
  then you realise that you are like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:05:34
  superstar. It's really things.
• 1:05:36
  So I looked at the lives, not that like personal lives, but I
• 1:05:42
  just looked at, look, not say, their lives.
• 1:05:43
  So I looked at the audit partners and I was like, no.
• 1:05:49
  So I'm. Lifestyle.
• 1:05:51
  I like the job. Is this what I?
• 1:05:53
  Yeah, that's so that's so. So I don't want to say life
• 1:05:55
  because I mean, yeah, yeah, yes. And not even personal.
• 1:06:01
  So not personal, so not outside of work.
• 1:06:04
  So because I have great friends that are partners, to be honest.
• 1:06:08
  But I looked at what a partner does and this is there's there's
• 1:06:17
  big money there. I mean, being another partner,
• 1:06:19
  there's like you you, you said. But I looked at it and it still
• 1:06:25
  can't rest. So I feel like if you climb to
• 1:06:29
  the top, there should be a point where you've literally paid your
• 1:06:32
  dues and they are now launching and then the other partners
• 1:06:37
  can't, can't really fact. I mean, we we ordered opinions
• 1:06:41
  and exactly. Yeah.
• 1:06:43
  We did. We did.
• 1:06:44
  Opinions work and all of that. I mean, if anything should
• 1:06:47
  happen, did we even called the manager?
• 1:06:50
  I mean, so even if they're going to sue, they won't even call
• 1:06:52
  them. So the risk means they can't.
• 1:06:54
  And I was like, no, I don't. I don't.
• 1:06:56
  I don't want that. So I don't think any job is
• 1:06:59
  easier than the other and it's every whatever is what's what,
• 1:07:05
  whatever is good, whatever is going to be.
• 1:07:07
  It's going to have hot parts. It's just whether can you deal
• 1:07:10
  with the hard parts. So to put everything together, I
• 1:07:15
  wasn't really really into audit. I was good at it, but I wasn't
• 1:07:20
  really into audit to start with. It wasn't my plan.
• 1:07:22
  I was going to be this year full of large listed company and then
• 1:07:29
  even if I wanted to reconsider, I looked at it and said no, no,
• 1:07:31
  no, no. I I I I don't.
• 1:07:33
  I don't want to be an audit partner.
• 1:07:36
  So all of that just culminated in at some point I literally
• 1:07:40
  resigned without having a job somewhere else because I felt
• 1:07:43
  that was the kick I needed. So it's not as if I wasn't
• 1:07:46
  searching, but naturally the the stuff is to be confident in
• 1:07:51
  saying that OK, yes, at least I have another job that I'm going
• 1:07:54
  to and then once I get there isn't that will make me easy to
• 1:07:58
  make it easy for me to resign here.
• 1:08:00
  So that didn't happen and I will tell you I interviewed or at
• 1:08:04
  least tried so many places, your lavages and so all that place,
• 1:08:09
  Lafarge, Sahara, all those places that that touch my head
• 1:08:12
  that that big company. That would be very.
• 1:08:15
  Lucky to have, Yeah, exactly that.
• 1:08:17
  We're very lucky to have. And I do blah blah and and and
• 1:08:20
  that's life generally because that's what my mindset has
• 1:08:24
  always been. Because I knew I knew I had the
• 1:08:27
  capacity. I knew I'd trained very well to
• 1:08:30
  be at that point. I worked with so many great
• 1:08:32
  clients that I just even thought one day one of them would just
• 1:08:35
  call me and say that we are putting you from delete.
• 1:08:37
  That never happened to us and audience, you know, like.
• 1:08:42
  Really. Yeah.
• 1:08:42
  No, sorry. It happened to a lot of people
• 1:08:45
  around me, but he never did happen to be like and I was in
• 1:08:48
  fact I was so lazy that thinking that that's what was going to
• 1:08:52
  happen. That's because I've done amazing
• 1:08:55
  work for clients and I just wondered like, you've been so
• 1:08:58
  good, you've been so awesome. Come and work with us and I'll
• 1:09:01
  just be like, yeah, this is my sign on fee and things like
• 1:09:05
  that. So that never happened to me.
• 1:09:07
  So I stayed like OK putting my own way out and say OK if these
• 1:09:11
  people that I'm working with don't know how good, I'll find
• 1:09:13
  my way. So I apply to all these big all
• 1:09:17
  these big companies. Obviously I wasn't going to, I
• 1:09:19
  wasn't applying to be CFO there in those places, but I was like
• 1:09:22
  OK, I was going to be finance manager, finance controller.
• 1:09:25
  I work my way up there as well. Well, very, very confident that
• 1:09:31
  confidential my abilities that they were going to be they were
• 1:09:36
  going to going to get the valuable person and and and and
• 1:09:41
  everything ties because that's life.
• 1:09:43
  So eventually it got to a point where I had to like lower my
• 1:09:48
  lower my gaze so to speak. And so that's how I ended up at
• 1:09:53
  this very fantastic, wonderful place to place to work is what's
• 1:09:59
  called Tennessee professional services.
• 1:10:01
  So it's called tennis professional services and I was
• 1:10:04
  the CFO. And so when I decided to take
• 1:10:07
  that role and I said OK, I can't go to a smaller place.
• 1:10:10
  So my plan was always busy awful, but I was going to leave
• 1:10:14
  the lights be finance manager, finance controller, probably I
• 1:10:17
  work my way up in that space. But then I was not like if I'm
• 1:10:21
  going to go to a mid size firm, then definitely I'm not going to
• 1:10:25
  start like all of that. So it was going to be good for
• 1:10:29
  me size for him and then become CFO immediately.
• 1:10:32
  So that kind of fast tracked my career into being a CFO.
• 1:10:37
  So if you're keeping track of the times of the year, so I work
• 1:10:41
  8 years of delight to 2017, So it means I became CFO at 3333
• 1:10:49
  years old. Yeah, that's got a fast track.
• 1:10:53
  Yeah. So that's kind of fast track.
• 1:10:54
  I mean everything is context is nuance.
• 1:10:56
  So it's actually a smaller firm is a smaller company is
• 1:11:00
  definitely not the same as CFO in a big one.
• 1:11:04
  But the truth is at least with all honesty and all of that and
• 1:11:08
  say actually try to get into this established companies that.
• 1:11:14
  So that's how actually have made the move out from from that
• 1:11:20
  space. OK, but then you might see FNG,
• 1:11:25
  right? So how did that come about you?
• 1:11:28
  You alright here for now creating myself for entry.
• 1:11:32
  Yes. So, so luckily it was also the
• 1:11:35
  experience. So, so first I had this
• 1:11:38
  eight-year experience in, so I won't call it audit anymore at
• 1:11:42
  this point in consulting because essentially that's what it was.
• 1:11:47
  It's just that we did a lot with it, but most of the time was
• 1:11:49
  consulting. So I had this eight years
• 1:11:51
  experience in consulting with the big four.
• 1:11:54
  I had the biggest client in Nigeria.
• 1:11:57
  I also had small clients. I had clients where literally
• 1:12:00
  everyone account stuff because they always have to balance our
• 1:12:03
  portfolio as managers and I had clients where I just walk in and
• 1:12:07
  they have 50 account staff. So and that I did over or at
• 1:12:14
  least consulted for over 100 companies in that space in in my
• 1:12:19
  time I do it. So I've seen all sorts of
• 1:12:22
  companies, big, small, whatever offshore, onshore like I've seen
• 1:12:27
  a lot and which is why I actually went through through
• 1:12:30
  that route. I didn't want to be in one
• 1:12:31
  company and then start from receivables to payables to fix
• 1:12:35
  the assets. So I went through the way I
• 1:12:38
  really wanted a big four accounting firm.
• 1:12:40
  So that I see a lot of clients in different industries.
• 1:12:44
  Another of that's to kind of like had to my experience that's
• 1:12:49
  really why I why I went that route so so that so that was the
• 1:12:53
  the consultancy me never left. Then I joined the company that
• 1:12:57
  at the time was struggling with structure.
• 1:13:01
  They're struggling with structure.
• 1:13:02
  So that's one thing I'll speak for.
• 1:13:04
  People are very used to. We love.
• 1:13:06
  Structure. Exactly.
• 1:13:08
  That's what got me the job. That's what got me the job.
• 1:13:11
  To be honest, it wasn't if it took me 3 months to 1st realise
• 1:13:15
  that the CFO role or CFO's job is not IFRS.
• 1:13:18
  So when you're an audit is IFR's, Isi's, blah, blah, blah
• 1:13:23
  and all of that. But that's all major that's the
• 1:13:27
  we are big on structure if that's what got me to find.
• 1:13:29
  They were like coming from if I I think the company at the time
• 1:13:32
  and I don't always listen to this but maybe but anyways my
• 1:13:35
  perspective I think the company at the time was just like they
• 1:13:38
  couldn't believe that they got someone like me to join them.
• 1:13:43
  Like people, people, people that work at delights come to us, but
• 1:13:49
  they don't go and join me inside midsize firms and and to be
• 1:13:54
  honest for a while I struggled with it.
• 1:13:55
  For a while I struggled with it, like shouldn't I be in the
• 1:13:59
  bigger, bigger place, bigger, better place.
• 1:14:03
  So I struggle with but but everything has reason and that
• 1:14:09
  reason has also led me to myself for Angie.
• 1:14:12
  So. So company was making a lot of
• 1:14:15
  money but at the same time losing a lot of money because of
• 1:14:18
  the lack of structure or lack of financial structure and all.
• 1:14:23
  So that was my role as a CFO to to start that.
• 1:14:28
  So I was doing that and I was getting first-hand experience if
• 1:14:32
  if that thing opened my eyes to a whole new different world
• 1:14:36
  outside of audit and BIG4 and whatever.
• 1:14:40
  And I realised that all the clients that had actually been
• 1:14:43
  auditing in all these years, once you come for audits, you
• 1:14:46
  don't see anything. To be to be very honest, because
• 1:14:49
  I've looked at both sides now you don't see anything but like
• 1:14:51
  what somebody has done in one year, you come and trying to
• 1:14:54
  edit it in 2-3 weeks, you're not seeing anything forget.
• 1:14:58
  And again, I realise that the real decisions is the decisions
• 1:15:03
  and all of those things that companies take that reflect in
• 1:15:07
  whatever financial reports that we now start to audit.
• 1:15:12
  So getting in the room of the decision makers is like real,
• 1:15:18
  the real big deal as opposed to making financial reports and all
• 1:15:23
  of that. The financial reports I the fact
• 1:15:25
  if if the first time you are really getting into anything is
• 1:15:28
  in the financial reports, then you're too late.
• 1:15:32
  The point is analysing. All the decisions.
• 1:15:35
  And actions that have been that have done, you're too late.
• 1:15:39
  I know so. So my eyes were opened, to be
• 1:15:43
  honest. So my experience before that
• 1:15:45
  wasn't a waste. But then my eyes were not open,
• 1:15:49
  especially in an unstructured setting.
• 1:15:52
  So structured setting, there's there's there's a board, there's
• 1:15:57
  a this, there's that, but once you start to work for private
• 1:15:59
  guys, like literally its company, but it's like one man
• 1:16:04
  business at the same time. There's no hurry.
• 1:16:07
  Yeah, exactly, exactly. And decisions are made fast.
• 1:16:11
  And these guys are making cool money.
• 1:16:13
  They're not. They're not into illegal stuff.
• 1:16:16
  They're just not doing it in the way that you would expect.
• 1:16:19
  All the business books have touch you.
• 1:16:21
  So the business would have taught us this is this, this is
• 1:16:24
  this, this is this. You pay dividend blah blah blah.
• 1:16:26
  Just they don't wait and things are happening and you can't then
• 1:16:32
  decide to say no, no, no, no, no.
• 1:16:34
  You're not doing it the way they taught us in the management
• 1:16:37
  class. But this like that, like who
• 1:16:40
  cares? No, I thought cares.
• 1:16:43
  So what happened in that space was that some people didn't even
• 1:16:47
  know that left the lights, which was normal.
• 1:16:50
  And they will call me and then say I'm having an issue with
• 1:16:54
  this, I'm having an issue with that.
• 1:16:56
  So I was giving free advice at the same time I was learning the
• 1:17:04
  other side, the industry side of things.
• 1:17:07
  So what I now really observed in that space was that there were
• 1:17:13
  lots and lots of businesses in Nigeria in particular that are
• 1:17:20
  suffering from a lack of financial structure.
• 1:17:25
  Yes, they are owners and all of that are making money, but they
• 1:17:30
  could make more. But more importantly, they are
• 1:17:32
  losing money. Like leading, leading money.
• 1:17:37
  Yeah, just it's like no structure around inventory.
• 1:17:41
  People buy inventive, just everything they will just delete
• 1:17:44
  or stuff like that. Vendors will be taking advantage
• 1:17:47
  of all of those things. No IFRS prepares you for that,
• 1:17:51
  no ISA, nothing prepares you for that.
• 1:17:53
  That's like points, the exact point in our country.
• 1:17:56
  Those are real life problems that have financial impacts
• 1:18:03
  implications. And then the guys that are
• 1:18:06
  involved are looking at, they're looking at the financial impact.
• 1:18:09
  They're just looking at it as it is so small, like me comes in
• 1:18:13
  and then I'm looking at, I'm trying everything to that.
• 1:18:16
  What does it look like? It's money.
• 1:18:18
  I tie it to money and then my CEO is always like is that like
• 1:18:24
  what do we do and all of that. So, so when you open my eyes and
• 1:18:29
  I really so I guess I'd always been even my time in delight
• 1:18:31
  with the smaller companies but never saw but my eyes were now
• 1:18:34
  open. I started looking around and and
• 1:18:36
  so that was a very that was the same problem And some companies
• 1:18:42
  they think some companies think that they just get an accountant
• 1:18:46
  not the CFO, an accountant and then they've solved that problem
• 1:18:51
  and then they end up frustrated with the accountant and the
• 1:18:53
  accountant who doesn't even know what they are doing.
• 1:18:56
  I know so myself for Angie was set up to help small and mid
• 1:19:02
  size. So if you're a big guy as a
• 1:19:04
  myself for energy really can help because then there are
• 1:19:08
  people that are smarter whatever they've done and be or the and
• 1:19:12
  and the bigger guys literally can put 345 people into 100
• 1:19:17
  their receivables the, the, the they go for.
• 1:19:22
  So they go to still places like delight or go to other whatever
• 1:19:25
  you went to what are you what that Mackenzie.
• 1:19:29
  So all of us like that work in that space, but I will work for
• 1:19:32
  a certain way. You don't work 6-7, eight years
• 1:19:34
  in that kind of space and then you don't do what you're doing.
• 1:19:37
  So all of us and everybody is looking for happy progression
• 1:19:43
  and things like that. So those big guys can afford to
• 1:19:48
  get the big guys or the the the most competent guys in our
• 1:19:53
  profession, the small guys can't.
• 1:19:58
  The smaller guys, even when I say mid size, mid size can't,
• 1:20:02
  they can't afford. So ordinarily, mid-size company
• 1:20:05
  cannot afford someone like me if I actually decide to go with the
• 1:20:09
  the way it's supposed to supposed to go.
• 1:20:12
  Full time. And because of that, there's now
• 1:20:17
  a gap. There's a gap for.
• 1:20:21
  So the guys that are coming up are guys are literally don't
• 1:20:24
  know what they're doing or they have limited exposure, limited
• 1:20:28
  experience. So due to they are figuring
• 1:20:30
  things out and then it causes a lot of frustration for for this
• 1:20:37
  company. So my cellphone engine was
• 1:20:39
  actually set up and I'm very honest, when I started it, I was
• 1:20:43
  very selfish. So all I thought was, you know
• 1:20:46
  what? I will be a virtual CFO for like
• 1:20:49
  5 companies. The five companies would pay me
• 1:20:52
  like 500,000 Naira a month and then I get 2.5 million in my
• 1:20:56
  account for a month and I'm and I'm sorry about that and I'm
• 1:21:01
  good and I get my 30 million a year, but blah blah and lean
• 1:21:06
  staff and all of that. So that was a very selfish kind
• 1:21:10
  of thinking of myself. And then he goes badly driven it
• 1:21:15
  it was valid driving. Yeah, Was it?
• 1:21:19
  Yeah, Yeah. I mean I mean the value added
• 1:21:21
  value proposition. But take value.
• 1:21:24
  Yeah, yeah. But when you think of the name
• 1:21:27
  of myself as to mean more, so I just stumbled on the name
• 1:21:31
  anyway. I mean, because I was going into
• 1:21:33
  that space and actually had to also leave Tennessee at the time
• 1:21:39
  to pursue it. I know I didn't feel I could
• 1:21:43
  run, but of them together, I mean the other things in the
• 1:21:46
  picture. But then I just decided, you
• 1:21:48
  know what? I was going to focus on my on on
• 1:21:51
  on running that, but eventually what I realised is that this
• 1:21:56
  thing is bigger than me. If I'm looking to solve this
• 1:22:02
  widespread, widespread problem, we can just have five 10/15/20
• 1:22:08
  clients. There are literally 37 million
• 1:22:12
  smaller mid-size entities in Nigeria.
• 1:22:15
  At least documented, this is a widespread problem.
• 1:22:22
  But then I even if I create a firm that arrivals delayed even
• 1:22:26
  delight and all of that, when you look at their client list,
• 1:22:30
  they literally have to get a lot of big guys to cover the cost of
• 1:22:34
  small guys. So you can just park small,
• 1:22:37
  small, small guys they. In fact, even to this point, I
• 1:22:41
  struggled to to explain the value that you get.
• 1:22:48
  I mean, so I have 16 years experience right now, I'm FCMC,
• 1:22:52
  blah blah, blah and I'm talking to a business.
• 1:22:54
  So now about why bookkeeping is important blah blah blah, how it
• 1:22:59
  return to handicap looking at me like I'm speaking what am I
• 1:23:02
  speaking? Grammar.
• 1:23:05
  Cleaning business for 20 years without proper bookkeeping.
• 1:23:08
  So why am I coming to to tell him this now and stuff like
• 1:23:12
  that. So all those things are for the
• 1:23:15
  textbook and so, so actually get that but we won't stop trying.
• 1:23:21
  So what I have anyway, So what myself with Angie is doing now
• 1:23:27
  what we realised is that the gap is not always necessary with the
• 1:23:30
  business owners. I mean that's that's the that
• 1:23:33
  won't go away, but it's in upskilling the accounting and
• 1:23:39
  finance guys coming up. So our our textbooks, our
• 1:23:45
  learnings, they teach us a lot of things that I would say do
• 1:23:49
  not apply in real life or they fail to make a connection
• 1:23:55
  between what we are doing, what we are doing in school or in our
• 1:23:59
  exams to how it helps a business.
• 1:24:03
  Because we have to remember that the guys maybe not even your
• 1:24:06
  CEOs or MSDS, the guys in operations department markets
• 1:24:13
  and they don't know all these things that we know and frankly
• 1:24:17
  they don't care in fact and I'll give.
• 1:24:20
  You. Yeah, Yeah, right.
• 1:24:23
  It's sad, but it's also good because you you are, you're,
• 1:24:27
  you're, you're there to fill in the gap.
• 1:24:29
  And I'll give you one quick example.
• 1:24:31
  I went somewhere where the MDC was hammering on the sales
• 1:24:37
  department or marketing, whatever you want to call them,
• 1:24:39
  and the guys are supposed to get sales in, hammering on them that
• 1:24:42
  they're not selling enough. Another like that they should go
• 1:24:45
  everywhere and flood the market with their product.
• 1:24:48
  So I was consulting there too as they say and now then created a
• 1:24:53
  conflict because what they are not doing was that because the
• 1:24:57
  MD would say you've not met that if no matter if not met targets.
• 1:25:00
  So what's happening is our guys will just take the product and
• 1:25:04
  go and dump it somewhere and then said if sued and then So
• 1:25:10
  what that means financially is that we have huge receivables,
• 1:25:15
  massive. And that's also because there's
• 1:25:19
  also now no structure to see before we even give you credit.
• 1:25:23
  Have we done our cheques, do you have a credit limit and all of
• 1:25:27
  that. I've got cheques, the background
• 1:25:29
  cheques or the what's even our policy, what's our credit
• 1:25:32
  policy. So MD is not thinking of that.
• 1:25:34
  MD doesn't go and say go and say go on sale now marketing and
• 1:25:39
  sales sell all of those things or literally I'd even in fact
• 1:25:43
  from your finance, I didn't call it selling.
• 1:25:45
  They just because they are, yeah, making noise when they
• 1:25:47
  are. They're just gonna drop it to
• 1:25:49
  your place. And those ones are more like,
• 1:25:52
  well I'm gonna give you more money until I sell your
• 1:25:55
  products. I mean I'm if a finance guy
• 1:25:59
  that's terrible for cash flow but nobody is even thinking of
• 1:26:02
  that. So now the marketing sales guys
• 1:26:04
  we sit down with them weekly meeting and they start to say
• 1:26:07
  ohh we sold so, so, so so so so million we so social media and
• 1:26:11
  everybody is clapping man there's no cash I like there's
• 1:26:16
  no cash and I, I, I there we are all and I'm saying this from a
• 1:26:23
  finance from a finance point like you don't just go and give
• 1:26:26
  people stuff. We need to profile them.
• 1:26:28
  We need to have credit limits, we need to, we need to do this
• 1:26:32
  and then when the receivables are high, they start to shout at
• 1:26:34
  the finance guy, why you not collecting receivables?
• 1:26:37
  Why is? Your receivables.
• 1:26:38
  So high blah blah blah, I have no idea when you when exactly.
• 1:26:43
  I literally have no idea. When you went to sell these
• 1:26:47
  things, I know so saw that gap. Is there this gap?
• 1:26:52
  And that's with me. That's not even knowledgeable
• 1:26:54
  even telling them no, you can't do that.
• 1:26:56
  But there are lots of accounts and that don't even know that
• 1:27:01
  the implications of every other thing that we do.
• 1:27:03
  So the one is just like you want to sell black babies receivable
• 1:27:09
  credit revenue, make the report like it doesn't help the
• 1:27:14
  business. Yes, the recording is good, but
• 1:27:17
  that's not anything critical or strategic or or things like
• 1:27:22
  that. And I can tell you millions and
• 1:27:24
  millions of stories. I know I mean there's a common
• 1:27:27
  team. So what myself, Angie is doing
• 1:27:29
  now is raising a lot more CFOs and finance business partners
• 1:27:36
  amongst our colleagues that don't actually, they were not
• 1:27:41
  lucky enough to to speak, to actually be exposed or to have
• 1:27:47
  the experience of working in large firms.
• 1:27:50
  Because if those guys are actually well equipped, they
• 1:27:55
  start to help turn around our small businesses.
• 1:27:58
  Our small businesses are losing money.
• 1:28:01
  They're losing, they're losing money, they're losing income.
• 1:28:04
  If at some of the things that they are kind of like
• 1:28:07
  associating with being small and say we can't just, we can't do
• 1:28:11
  that. I actually see things like no,
• 1:28:14
  that means that being small means you are agile, it means
• 1:28:17
  that you're flexible, it means that you can be fast.
• 1:28:19
  And I use this analogy, if you are going on the road, it's very
• 1:28:24
  easy to turn around the Lamborghini than to turn around
• 1:28:27
  a truck. So big companies most times
• 1:28:31
  already set you know, structure of our blah.
• 1:28:35
  So you don't need to have that destructive, but at least it
• 1:28:38
  means that you are now very, very agile and all of that
• 1:28:42
  flexible and things like that. And those things don't mean that
• 1:28:46
  you lose money. And if you even look around you,
• 1:28:50
  you will see lots of small businesses that actually doing
• 1:28:52
  well, like they're doing well, even if it's your mom and pop
• 1:28:56
  shop and all of that. But it's just a case of at the
• 1:29:00
  end of the day, all of it is down to money.
• 1:29:02
  It's down to finance. And then so and I also says this
• 1:29:07
  thing very well that every single business on this planet,
• 1:29:10
  every single one has a CFO and there's people like OHH, what do
• 1:29:14
  you mean that was helpful? I'm like, well, you might not
• 1:29:17
  necessarily call the person as CFO, but every single business
• 1:29:20
  has somebody making decisions about money.
• 1:29:24
  So it could be the business owner or CEO himself deciding
• 1:29:27
  they don't need to get the professional, that they will
• 1:29:30
  handle money themselves. It's fine.
• 1:29:33
  But they would not do it the same way that high for anybody
• 1:29:37
  that has been trained to connect finance to business to do it.
• 1:29:41
  And then if some owners have accountants and then they try
• 1:29:47
  them one or two things and their accountants can't even go beyond
• 1:29:50
  recording and things like that. And then they decide, you know
• 1:29:54
  what accountants are all the same, they are useless and no.
• 1:29:56
  So we are really about empowering a lot of young
• 1:30:01
  accountants, finance professionals.
• 1:30:04
  So I'm always, definitely just limit it to accountants, but it
• 1:30:07
  usually starts from there, It's usually starts from.
• 1:30:10
  It really starts like if you don't know accounting, I don't
• 1:30:14
  know what I'm doing in finance, but accounting is not financing.
• 1:30:17
  It's like a very small subset to be honest.
• 1:30:20
  But the accounting is the information that you use for
• 1:30:24
  things like budgeting, forecasting, investment
• 1:30:29
  decisions, like if you get your accounting wrong, if you put
• 1:30:32
  debit in the wrong place, credit in the wrong place, all of that.
• 1:30:35
  And then you start to use it to make any decisions, the
• 1:30:38
  decisions will be flawed. So that's why I like to start
• 1:30:40
  from accounting, but then realising that finance is way
• 1:30:43
  bigger. And then that's usually the
• 1:30:45
  disconnect because the business speaks finance, the business
• 1:30:48
  doesn't speak accounting. So if we are going to talk as an
• 1:30:52
  accountant to any other person, not just the CEO, any other
• 1:30:55
  person in your business, don't talk accounting to them, don't
• 1:30:58
  tell them depreciation, don't tell them my first 15, don't.
• 1:31:01
  Don't you know that, they don't know that.
• 1:31:03
  And even before you know it, you know how long it took you, you
• 1:31:07
  didn't just lend it on in one day.
• 1:31:08
  So you can't go to someone and then you're having the
• 1:31:11
  discussion and you're saying I said blah blah blah, but like
• 1:31:16
  who cares? Who cares?
• 1:31:19
  What are you saying? Say love people?
• 1:31:21
  I stuck it stuck in that space and that's what we are trying
• 1:31:23
  to. That's a gap we're trying to
• 1:31:25
  close. Wow, interested.
• 1:31:27
  So I see on your LinkedIn profile your nomination to raise
• 1:31:30
  1000 Tfos and FPS. So or 1,000,000.
• 1:31:36
  Wow, 11 million? CFO's and FD P's and you know
• 1:31:40
  like how how have we gone on that journey and I think we've
• 1:31:43
  been saying CFO, CFO and then now actually be like to the to
• 1:31:48
  the layman please tell us what you know this is about.
• 1:31:53
  All right. So CFO is Chief Finance Officer,
• 1:31:57
  Chief Financial Officer. So that's you have the overall
• 1:32:00
  responsibility for finance and business, simple as that.
• 1:32:05
  Finance business partner is more or less like a step below and
• 1:32:12
  big companies have finance business partners.
• 1:32:14
  Now I'm just trying to bring it into small smaller businesses.
• 1:32:19
  So if finance business partner is somebody that and installing
• 1:32:23
  the name that partners the business with finance that's as
• 1:32:25
  simple as it gets. So I believe that in like I and
• 1:32:31
  I also like we takes you back to the what I said that every
• 1:32:34
  single business has a CFO. So you have a small business and
• 1:32:40
  you need to be able to trust that an accounting and finance
• 1:32:43
  professional can actually handle the financial matters in your
• 1:32:47
  business. So that person might not
• 1:32:50
  necessarily have a title of a CFO, but they will play the role
• 1:32:55
  of his CFO. So that's why I believe that we
• 1:32:59
  can raise 1,000,000. I mean we have like I said we
• 1:33:01
  have 37 million small businesses in Nigeria and I mean even gets
• 1:33:08
  higher when it starts to add mid size and all of that.
• 1:33:12
  So the journey of isn't. This one million, Like how far?
• 1:33:16
  Yeah, he's going Like, what number was the guesstimates
• 1:33:18
  right now? Ah, to be safe, I would say I
• 1:33:23
  haven't taken stock yet. But we're.
• 1:33:26
  Just gonna. Without that, I counted that
• 1:33:30
  terrible people. Yeah.
• 1:33:33
  In fact, that's the business, that's the businessman side of
• 1:33:36
  it with the account. But This is why I'm going to say
• 1:33:40
  we're just getting started. Actually we're just getting
• 1:33:42
  started, especially with changing the model from the
• 1:33:45
  service based one to a knowledge base one.
• 1:33:48
  So for instance I have, I have LinkedIn posts, I post.
• 1:33:55
  So my social media for now is just LinkedIn only and I share
• 1:33:59
  Nuggets and things like that relating to how.
• 1:34:04
  So I write for two audiences primarily.
• 1:34:06
  One is to businesses to understand how finances better
• 1:34:10
  for them and two is to up and coming accountants and sometimes
• 1:34:15
  so there's an intersection especially for up and coming
• 1:34:18
  accountant. So when I write to businesses
• 1:34:19
  and say you must do this, do this, young accountants Suki
• 1:34:22
  yeah, I can. They can take what I've said
• 1:34:25
  from what I've written there and go and apply it in their own
• 1:34:29
  business because I can't literally reach all business
• 1:34:33
  owners. So I get feedback from people to
• 1:34:38
  say that ohh, they saw that post blah blah blah and then they
• 1:34:42
  used it to do so. So which are, which is which is
• 1:34:46
  what I like about the rich. So based on my rich right now
• 1:34:49
  people are actually taking my content, my ideas and all of
• 1:34:53
  that and using it to improve their businesses where they are
• 1:34:58
  working as in moving from accountant to finance business
• 1:35:01
  partners and even to the CFO tag.
• 1:35:07
  And so I would say things like I won't be able to quantify that,
• 1:35:12
  but that's, that's there and that's the intention.
• 1:35:14
  So yes, we must eat somehow, but the intention is not to monetize
• 1:35:20
  the entire process of saying, oh, you're coming into the
• 1:35:24
  space, we've trained you well. We got jobs for you.
• 1:35:27
  It's just to make that awareness out there that yes, you might
• 1:35:34
  have trained as an accountant, but you can't be more, you can
• 1:35:37
  be FB, you can be CFO. And if it's only by listening or
• 1:35:42
  reading my content or listening to the podcast that we have that
• 1:35:45
  that's going to happen, that's fine.
• 1:35:48
  But then if you also want something much more curated, you
• 1:35:52
  can reach out to us. So what we're doing is actually
• 1:35:55
  selling knowledge like we have the entire package of how you
• 1:36:00
  get to a CFO. So we're just starting.
• 1:36:03
  We're just getting started in that space.
• 1:36:06
  That means coming up in 2024, we do a lot of corporate trainings.
• 1:36:12
  I had master classes last year. They're going to be, they're
• 1:36:17
  going to be 1 master classes, my name last year.
• 1:36:19
  This year 2023 sorry there are gonna be more master classes
• 1:36:23
  boot camps and all of that. So and a few things have also
• 1:36:29
  changed in the in the makeup. So when I started myself Angie
• 1:36:32
  was just me and I mean I was consulting with a few people but
• 1:36:36
  now I have more partners so we're looking at getting more to
• 1:36:40
  get the reach out there. So 2024 is actually a year
• 1:36:45
  that's come back to me at the end of 2024 then I can give you
• 1:36:49
  stock of OK, at least directly this is this is what we what we
• 1:36:54
  what we've done. I know ever done the metric out
• 1:36:59
  exactly. So there there's there's a
• 1:37:01
  massive, massive potential. And I do talk to a lot of
• 1:37:04
  business owners and they tell me to this day when we have
• 1:37:07
  coaching, they tell me a lot of the the concerns that they have
• 1:37:10
  and sometimes in that space they just wish I can come in and then
• 1:37:14
  come and do some work for them. But then the truth is I have
• 1:37:18
  hourly rate and then I can come in.
• 1:37:21
  So I can actually even come in and then do something for 1-2
• 1:37:25
  months. But after that, what happens?
• 1:37:28
  Because you can't afford to keep me full time even if they call
• 1:37:32
  you at the Malana at some points.
• 1:37:34
  I mean you have bills, you have all of that like you rather work
• 1:37:38
  in a place that you do have structure exactly considering
• 1:37:43
  structure exactly and continuity and all of that.
• 1:37:46
  So. So sometimes if you work for the
• 1:37:50
  smaller guys you're taking a risk and now but they tell me
• 1:37:52
  all these things and then we realise that yeah there are
• 1:37:55
  people accounting with always be in style I mean the number of
• 1:37:59
  people that were inducted and all of that.
• 1:38:01
  So it's just once we empower those guys, our guys coming up,
• 1:38:07
  I actually the end goal is actually economic development.
• 1:38:12
  It might not seem like it, but it is because a company is as
• 1:38:17
  good as its financial processes. A lot of people disagree.
• 1:38:21
  But once, once you once, you understand that the point of
• 1:38:25
  business is money, the point of business is finance.
• 1:38:28
  If somebody says they are a businessman, they are talking
• 1:38:31
  about movement of money, the how the money comes in, whether
• 1:38:35
  they're selling. They're talking about money.
• 1:38:37
  Even if they're not-for-profit, still need money to do anything
• 1:38:41
  you need to do. So if if people understand that
• 1:38:47
  and then they can strengthen their financial processes even
• 1:38:50
  in their little space, then look at the collective, the
• 1:38:54
  aggregation of all of that and look at how we can impact our
• 1:38:59
  economy. A lot of people would not do
• 1:39:02
  very big things and it doesn't mean they are not successful.
• 1:39:06
  They are OK in their space. There are people that just
• 1:39:09
  literally covering what I would call a catchment area, like a
• 1:39:12
  plumber or something. You don't even need to be on the
• 1:39:16
  exactly even. You just need to maybe be a
• 1:39:18
  plumber, servicing one estate in Magudu only.
• 1:39:21
  That's all you're doing. You don't even need to be on
• 1:39:23
  LinkedIn. You don't need to be on
• 1:39:24
  anywhere. You don't need to get clients
• 1:39:26
  from other parts of the world, like just in that space.
• 1:39:29
  But meanwhile you're running your business and you're running
• 1:39:32
  it professionally and then you have somebody that can actually
• 1:39:36
  give you sound financial advice on running your business and
• 1:39:40
  maximising your, your profits, maximising everything whereby
• 1:39:44
  that's your small space, you're actually doing, doing, doing a
• 1:39:48
  lot and then just look at the multiplier effects of all of
• 1:39:52
  that and we have people in accounting and finance that can
• 1:39:55
  help. So, so definitely I see, I see
• 1:40:01
  growth in this space, I see the gaps, I see growth and sometimes
• 1:40:06
  it feels like I'm talking about small money but even mid sized
• 1:40:09
  companies in Nigeria to have the same problem.
• 1:40:12
  They have that the SMEs. So that's why we just say SN and
• 1:40:16
  when I see mid size like literally your revenue could be
• 1:40:20
  6 billion in a year, 6 billion in naira and you're still mid
• 1:40:23
  sized I mean because once you compare it to see empty and need
• 1:40:28
  2 trillion naira last year. I mean those are massive duty
• 1:40:31
  needs trillions, Nigerian breweries billions and so people
• 1:40:35
  are making 203 hundred 600 billion.
• 1:40:38
  So those are those are large and big?
• 1:40:43
  Exactly. And I'm beyond the money.
• 1:40:45
  The first thing you notice about them, because I work with most
• 1:40:48
  of them, is structure. There's that structure that
• 1:40:53
  turns out it just, it's so it's like they're printing money,
• 1:40:56
  they churn out, they're just churning out.
• 1:40:59
  So there's product, there's everything relates to smaller
• 1:41:02
  guys, just believe that some things are not important, but
• 1:41:06
  we're here to tell them that they are equally as important
• 1:41:08
  irrespective of your size. So I'm excited about this.
• 1:41:12
  And then definitely, if I don't get to 1 million, even if I only
• 1:41:18
  raise 10 people, which I think is really more about if I raised
• 1:41:23
  10 people and those 10 people find fulfilment in saying that,
• 1:41:27
  yeah, Ajibola and myself were hanging, helped them progress in
• 1:41:31
  their career to that point, then I actually would be fulfilled
• 1:41:34
  myself. It's it's more about the impact
• 1:41:38
  than the numbers, right? Quality over quantity.
• 1:41:41
  Wow. Interesting.
• 1:41:42
  Because you know. We need the quantity though, but
• 1:41:45
  yeah. We thought.
• 1:41:49
  Beverly, we start with the value and then volume.
• 1:41:51
  Volume I think volume. Volume.
• 1:41:54
  I actually I'm. Confident that.
• 1:41:55
  Volume will. Volume.
• 1:41:56
  Yes. So, so you, you mentioned that
• 1:42:00
  you provide advice to you, you know both the SME's and of
• 1:42:04
  course individuals, right. But then what would you say are
• 1:42:07
  like your top five, you know, sound financial management teams
• 1:42:11
  for making SME's right successful?
• 1:42:17
  Ah, so I saw the question earlier and again, somebody has
• 1:42:21
  asked me. So most of it is, I don't want
• 1:42:25
  to be too generic. So I'm going to give you just
• 1:42:28
  one. I'm going to give all of them
• 1:42:29
  just one, OK. And and that's fundamental.
• 1:42:33
  Every other thing will be on a case by case basis.
• 1:42:36
  So that's one is called discipline, financial
• 1:42:41
  discipline. So SME's are nature.
• 1:42:44
  So a lot of reason why SME's don't want structure even though
• 1:42:50
  they know they need it is so that they can being disciplined
• 1:42:56
  with how and so you can set up all the controls and processes
• 1:43:02
  in the world. And as as an auditor the you
• 1:43:05
  know what they say about management, a variety of.
• 1:43:07
  Control exactly. So that's, that's the reality.
• 1:43:12
  With SMS, you set up everything, and then this, this, this, this,
• 1:43:16
  this, and then at the first sign of inconvenience so to speak,
• 1:43:23
  you as the person that set it up, you override everything
• 1:43:26
  controls. You override the controls and
• 1:43:30
  then because you can literally do whatever you want.
• 1:43:36
  So that's the fundamental problem that I would say 95% of
• 1:43:43
  them have because you are the owner, you can do whatever you
• 1:43:47
  want or you are at the top, you can do whatever you want and
• 1:43:50
  then you're not accountable to board or whatever.
• 1:43:53
  Or even if you, even if you set up a board and you are like 100%
• 1:43:57
  shareholder, they would talk what they want to talk bro.
• 1:44:01
  So how much more if you have a boy then how much more comes
• 1:44:05
  with and say that the finance guy you must do this, you must
• 1:44:07
  do this, you must do that, blah blah blah.
• 1:44:09
  If at the first sign of you know, I mean some of these
• 1:44:16
  things are basic so financial success right from LED's it's
• 1:44:23
  there's a set of principles which this you do this you do
• 1:44:26
  this you do this and it takes time.
• 1:44:28
  It's patience. You don't rush it.
• 1:44:30
  And then you have a guy just be like, you know what?
• 1:44:32
  This deal, This deal, Ah, you must close blah, blah, blah,
• 1:44:35
  blah, blah, blah and then bypass all the signatures or try to get
• 1:44:41
  a contract so that before we do this, like they just forget all
• 1:44:45
  of that and be like. And if you're an accountant in
• 1:44:47
  those places and the MDC is do this and you're asking the MD,
• 1:44:52
  but we need to set this up. And they were like, whoa, who
• 1:44:55
  employed who? Blah, blah, blah.
• 1:44:56
  I said should do it, go and do it, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:44:58
  And that's the reality of so many people.
• 1:45:00
  That's their reality. Exactly.
• 1:45:02
  They can't talk back. I mean, they don't have another
• 1:45:06
  job yet. They can't, they can't, they
• 1:45:07
  can't challenge, they can't see anything.
• 1:45:10
  MD wants it like this and that's the reality.
• 1:45:13
  So, so SMS require discipline. Once you have discipline,
• 1:45:22
  especially financial discipline, like every other tip around,
• 1:45:28
  things like maybe I would just mention it with about things
• 1:45:31
  like structure, segregation of duties, lean, lean processes,
• 1:45:41
  automation, all those things come into place.
• 1:45:43
  But the truth is if you do all those things, you put automation
• 1:45:46
  and say oh this must go here, to go here to go here.
• 1:45:49
  And then the first sign of something needs to happen, the
• 1:45:53
  MDC says no, no, no, no, don't delay my customer, blah blah,
• 1:45:56
  yeah, I will sign, I will sign manually, blah blah blah.
• 1:45:59
  And then everything that they've spent money on on just goes down
• 1:46:04
  the window. And once the tone at the top
• 1:46:06
  says that that thing is not as important or we can sideline it
• 1:46:11
  when it doesn't serve us, when when once they say that
• 1:46:16
  everybody working in the firm just then knows that, yeah, that
• 1:46:19
  thing is not important. So I would, I would just put it
• 1:46:22
  down to discipline and it's very.
• 1:46:24
  Hard. So it's very, very hard.
• 1:46:26
  Wow. Wow.
• 1:46:28
  It's difficult, right? But then, you know, once that
• 1:46:33
  discipline is actually instituted, right, especially at
• 1:46:37
  the top, it follows, you know, the rest of the other
• 1:46:41
  organisation. So we've actually spoken about
• 1:46:43
  organisations, right? So how about individuals?
• 1:46:46
  Like what? What financial advice would you
• 1:46:48
  give to the younger generation? Because we are finance
• 1:46:52
  professionals and you would know that even as finance
• 1:46:56
  professionals, a lot of individuals, right?
• 1:46:58
  We know how to advise companies on some financial practises and
• 1:47:02
  all. But then there was a police
• 1:47:04
  training recently on on Twitter, right, which is not X.
• 1:47:10
  They say, oh, I love the guy, they love the people in the big
• 1:47:13
  four are always broke. I don't know what is your
• 1:47:15
  problem. So I don't know if you saw that
• 1:47:17
  thing, but like even their managers are broken.
• 1:47:23
  He came to me like, yeah, a lot. That's actually true.
• 1:47:26
  Like a lot of you know, finance professionals umm, have poor
• 1:47:31
  personal finances. Not because they don't even end
• 1:47:34
  much, but because they don't manage their finances properly
• 1:47:39
  as well. So, like, what advice would you
• 1:47:42
  give to the younger generation of professionals in funerals
• 1:47:45
  you? Know.
• 1:47:46
  All right. No.
• 1:47:47
  So so first up is literally the same thing discipline.
• 1:47:52
  So whether it's personal finance or corporate finance, it's
• 1:47:56
  literally it comes down to discipline because money coming
• 1:48:01
  in for the most part, for the most part, you have no control
• 1:48:06
  over it. I mean there are nuances to
• 1:48:08
  that. Some people say it's whatever
• 1:48:10
  you do that brings money in. But let's just say for arguments
• 1:48:14
  sake, you have, especially if you have a steady job, just show
• 1:48:17
  up on the month your salary comes in.
• 1:48:20
  But money going out, definitely you have control over.
• 1:48:25
  You have control over that and none of it is easy, especially
• 1:48:29
  with rising bills and all of that.
• 1:48:31
  But whatever takes money out of your wallets or your bank
• 1:48:38
  account is as a result of the decisions you have taken.
• 1:48:42
  So for instance, you could decide to leave, or if you live
• 1:48:47
  in Lagos, you could decide decide to leave on the island as
• 1:48:51
  opposed to the mainland. That decision on where to live
• 1:48:55
  impacts what your rent is, impacts even cost of living.
• 1:49:02
  Maybe things are more expensive on the island.
• 1:49:05
  I know so in itself doesn't seem like a financial decision where
• 1:49:12
  to live, but it it is so you can then decide that you know what
• 1:49:17
  with this my income sister presents my school to rent maybe
• 1:49:22
  30% or 40%. And then you start to see what
• 1:49:25
  brackets of area cannot live comfortably with.
• 1:49:29
  This and the other part of the discipline still rings true.
• 1:49:38
  Money going out, deciding to spend or splurge or whatever
• 1:49:42
  knowing that another income is coming is common amongst people.
• 1:49:46
  So whether you're finance professional or not, it's very,
• 1:49:49
  very easy to become not to have discipline around finances,
• 1:49:54
  especially when you have a steady source of income.
• 1:49:57
  So I'm going to ask, I'm going to say discipline one.
• 1:50:01
  And so what's funny? What's funny is I actually had a
• 1:50:07
  discussion representing a speaking event with the Project
• 1:50:11
  Management Institute of Nigeria sometime about two or three
• 1:50:15
  months ago. And the topic was I'll corporate
• 1:50:20
  finance and personal finance are the same.
• 1:50:22
  So that's one of the mantras I have it.
• 1:50:24
  For me, they are literally the same thing.
• 1:50:28
  Companies have assets, humans have assets, companies have
• 1:50:31
  liabilities, human beings have liabilities.
• 1:50:34
  So no matter what you take it, revenues for companies, salary
• 1:50:40
  for individuals or if they are doing other things, expenses,
• 1:50:43
  universal things like that. It's just that we almost don't
• 1:50:49
  prepare financial statements of our lives.
• 1:50:52
  I was as individuals, that's what of an individual, it's
• 1:50:59
  their asset manager liabilities that's same as net assets in the
• 1:51:02
  company and you actually use it to determine the worth of a
• 1:51:05
  company. So you could say net worth is
• 1:51:08
  the same thing. So when you think about it that
• 1:51:10
  way, so my advice was that if you know that you can start to
• 1:51:17
  plan your life like it, the companies that you like, strong
• 1:51:21
  companies, you can plan your life and your finances around.
• 1:51:26
  What kind of assets do I want to have?
• 1:51:29
  What kind of liabilities do I want to have my revenue?
• 1:51:33
  Is it just from one source or multiple sources?
• 1:51:37
  How do I manage my expenses? If I take a loan?
• 1:51:43
  If I? If I?
• 1:51:44
  If I incurred that, am I using it to finance an assets?
• 1:51:48
  Am I using to finance operations?
• 1:51:50
  You know there's a big difference because you you, you
• 1:51:53
  take money to you take a loan to pay rent.
• 1:51:57
  The money that you would use to pay the loan will come from your
• 1:52:01
  revenue. That's probably you already had
• 1:52:05
  like not increasing or no. But you take a loan to buy an
• 1:52:09
  asset that then generates additional revenue that then
• 1:52:14
  generates the cash that you used to pay the loan.
• 1:52:18
  You see that there's a difference there and that's how
• 1:52:19
  companies actually do it. Most of them do, except for a
• 1:52:23
  small overdraft, whatever. But if they take alone a proper,
• 1:52:29
  proper loan, there is need to finance assets.
• 1:52:32
  If I can do that, they do leverage, that's all leverage.
• 1:52:35
  They leverage their assets, blah blah, blah.
• 1:52:37
  So if everything, anything goes wrong, they can't pay back the
• 1:52:40
  loan. Yeah, come and take the assets,
• 1:52:42
  use it to pay the loan. But then if people start to take
• 1:52:45
  loans using for operational stuff or use it to fund their
• 1:52:49
  lifestyle so to speak and their revenue is not increasing, their
• 1:52:53
  revenue is still the same source it was I know so.
• 1:52:56
  So my advice is people start to think about this in in that, in
• 1:53:00
  that line, like think of yourself as not just yourself as
• 1:53:05
  as a company and then start to make decisions in that in that
• 1:53:09
  line. So I was Even.
• 1:53:11
  So there's this funny one just around of there's this funny
• 1:53:14
  thing around assets, fixed assets and current assets and
• 1:53:19
  even cash. I know.
• 1:53:20
  So you go to somebody's house, they have this big plasma TV,
• 1:53:25
  they have a fridge, they have a disc in their house, they have a
• 1:53:29
  big bed, what a nice furniture, blah blah, blah.
• 1:53:32
  But it's possible they don't have cash, but if people say
• 1:53:36
  they're like, yeah, you have all these assets even if they do the
• 1:53:38
  net worth and all of that like all these are your assets.
• 1:53:40
  I mean, it's literally property plant and these are your
• 1:53:43
  property. But it doesn't mean that if you
• 1:53:45
  need cash, you start to sell. You're like I've been broken,
• 1:53:48
  Crash, did they decide to sell your fridge?
• 1:53:51
  They're going to get a lot less than the less value for it
• 1:53:57
  because well, we just decides to hop and sell their fridge.
• 1:54:02
  So what should I think about that?
• 1:54:03
  You can then decide on the type of assets you want to have.
• 1:54:07
  So investments are an assets and then they can easily convert to
• 1:54:12
  cash. And so it just be like OK maybe
• 1:54:16
  a little less more material stuff maybe I just have enough
• 1:54:19
  that can I mean that's comfortable for me to get by and
• 1:54:22
  then more investment because investment generates returns, I
• 1:54:26
  know but typically you're TV, you're free you're not of those
• 1:54:30
  things don't generate money. But then so I can look at you
• 1:54:34
  and be like ah, you have access so you you've taken your revenue
• 1:54:38
  or whatever you get the money from your visit to buy things
• 1:54:42
  and then those things are technically assets you own them
• 1:54:47
  and somebody would tell you that yeah don't worry this is what
• 1:54:51
  this amounts and then but then the truth is they are not
• 1:54:55
  revenue generating assets and then and things like that.
• 1:55:00
  So once people start to think like that, and it's very easy to
• 1:55:04
  get financial education nowadays, even if you're not in
• 1:55:07
  finance, go on YouTube, whatever, get financial
• 1:55:10
  education and then look at the biggest companies in the world.
• 1:55:13
  They are, they are, they are mostly public McDonald's,
• 1:55:18
  Amazon, blah, blah, blah. So you can even see their
• 1:55:22
  financials. You can and they they must have
• 1:55:24
  management commentary. So if I do that a lot, I just be
• 1:55:27
  like, OK, OK, because you're not just looking at numbers you're
• 1:55:32
  putting, I'm just saying revenues, 1 billion or whatever.
• 1:55:35
  They're also explaining this is what we're thinking, this is
• 1:55:39
  what we did. So I just do that now, apply
• 1:55:41
  that personally, and then it works as well.
• 1:55:46
  Interesting. So on the list of questions, top
• 1:55:49
  one, it says you know what's, what's your take on the
• 1:55:53
  financial ecosystem in Nigeria and like what can be done to
• 1:55:57
  achieve financial inclusion. So that's a tough one against
• 1:56:03
  one of the ones I saw and I was hoping you wouldn't ask.
• 1:56:08
  Wow. And and this because I, I, I
• 1:56:14
  honestly don't have an answer or I I don't have what I would call
• 1:56:17
  an intelligent answer to to it because and why I would say that
• 1:56:22
  is economic economics. Are you read economics.
• 1:56:28
  I'm like, I can't teach economics.
• 1:56:32
  The There's a weapons are supposed to work as in from
• 1:56:36
  studies and I think in Nigeria in particular everything's just
• 1:56:42
  flipped every everything that every that's.
• 1:56:46
  Very true. I think everything is flipped.
• 1:56:49
  It doesn't just work that way. So because again what's
• 1:56:56
  financial inclusion, you see that everybody should be
• 1:57:01
  digitally captured. Basically that, that, that
• 1:57:06
  that's the part of like having people use financial
• 1:57:09
  institutions, right? So you see that there's a lot of
• 1:57:14
  our economy in Nigeria that is outside of the financial
• 1:57:17
  institutions, outside of the banks, right?
• 1:57:19
  Yeah, Yeah. So so basically how do we?
• 1:57:22
  Bring I I get that. I get that, yeah.
• 1:57:25
  Yeah, for the for the layman watching.
• 1:57:28
  OK. Yeah.
• 1:57:29
  Yeah. No, no, I know.
• 1:57:30
  I get that. I get that.
• 1:57:32
  No. So I was trying to say was that
• 1:57:36
  what does bringing them in do for them?
• 1:57:44
  So for instance, you go to a Alaba area and that's huge
• 1:57:50
  economic, electronics, whatever. And yes, it's a very large
• 1:57:54
  informal market and they are moving billions and billions of
• 1:57:58
  naira. We want them to warm through the
• 1:58:02
  banks there and all their hearing and and and they're fine
• 1:58:07
  where they are and they're literally fine.
• 1:58:09
  They like you. What's the benefit to them
• 1:58:12
  because now you bring them, include them, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:58:15
  Then they don't know Vivian. Before you know the fires and
• 1:58:18
  whatever is now, in their case literally you want to take the
• 1:58:22
  food out of their mouth and then you cannot monitor what's going
• 1:58:26
  on with them. And they don't want that because
• 1:58:31
  they are good where they are and that's in that space.
• 1:58:36
  And I don't even really feel that some people, the inclusion
• 1:58:44
  is their problem because we don't want to create a problem
• 1:58:46
  where there is not. So the inclusion, whether
• 1:58:48
  they're included or not. So the fact is that nobody is
• 1:58:50
  excluded. Let's start with that nobody is
• 1:58:53
  excluded. There is no mechanism that
• 1:58:55
  excludes anybody right now. So everybody has a right to be
• 1:59:00
  included. So the people that excluded are
• 1:59:04
  not necessarily there's a barrier to them.
• 1:59:09
  It's a voluntary exclusion. Exactly.
• 1:59:11
  There's there's no, there's no barrier like what's stopping you
• 1:59:15
  from being included and is, is it that technology is not enough
• 1:59:19
  or things like that. So what I would say overall,
• 1:59:23
  like I said, I don't have an intelligent, but I would say
• 1:59:25
  overall is that we need to think beyond fintechs just coming U
• 1:59:33
  and then all they are doing are even learns and I know they do
• 1:59:39
  want that, but most of them are giving loans and and giving us
• 1:59:47
  without real KYC or whatever giving, giving loans and payment
• 1:59:53
  solutions, things like that because the farmer in KEBBI and
• 1:59:58
  all of that doesn't care. If I give you the person cash,
• 2:00:02
  it does. The person has it needs all of
• 2:00:04
  that. So what what we need investment
• 2:00:08
  in is things around that just helps the economy growth.
• 2:00:11
  So we need investment more in agriculture and health, in
• 2:00:15
  education. And so a lot of money is going
• 2:00:18
  into fintechs and data pretty much doing the same thing and
• 2:00:24
  everybody's seeing the same thing in my opinion, financial
• 2:00:28
  inclusion, financial inclusion, I want to bring more people in,
• 2:00:31
  want to be more. So we are doing using tech to
• 2:00:33
  bring more people in, but The thing is that how was it
• 2:00:41
  bettering the lives of those people you want to bring in And
• 2:00:46
  we need to really talk about what's really impacting them.
• 2:00:51
  It's not financial inclusion that's impacting them.
• 2:00:54
  The the, the farmer wants to grow more.
• 2:00:57
  They they want to have good health, they want their kids to
• 2:01:00
  go to school. Lots of social things that that
• 2:01:03
  we can really address than than. Just than just exactly that, but
• 2:01:10
  actually. You said that guys just
• 2:01:12
  announcing to some of us that they've raised another $100
• 2:01:15
  million to blah blah blah, then yeah, to be to be honest, he
• 2:01:21
  just copies. It's just a small subset of
• 2:01:24
  people interested. We're going to talk about the
• 2:01:29
  the issues of Nigeria. It would be a very that's
• 2:01:31
  another podcast added to. So really like what what advice
• 2:01:37
  do you have for the younger generation in terms of
• 2:01:39
  overcoming imposter syndrome? Uh-huh.
• 2:01:45
  So that that would that would be easier if if I even overcoming
• 2:01:50
  myself. Ohh interesting.
• 2:02:00
  So, so, so, so I was just saying so I would say it get easier to
• 2:02:08
  manage but it never leaves and and and I and I see people ohh,
• 2:02:14
  I've heard of people even that I would say that much smarter and
• 2:02:21
  smarter than I am. Even me saying that this is some
• 2:02:24
  form of impostor syndrome. But I've seen people say things
• 2:02:27
  like that and say you know what, they never really get to buy it.
• 2:02:31
  So they are acts. So for instance like Beyoncé
• 2:02:36
  said that she created this Sasha Fierce alter ego.
• 2:02:41
  And if I've most of this, even if you're into Epona, even
• 2:02:46
  Eminem, I'm enters into Slim Shady.
• 2:02:50
  So people just literally create an alter ego of themselves and
• 2:02:56
  then in that fashion of themselves, they are not
• 2:03:01
  themselves, they are different person.
• 2:03:02
  They give that person their licence to really be bold and
• 2:03:07
  brave and then when they're in that space they literally can't
• 2:03:10
  say or do anything. So so that's that's a hack that
• 2:03:15
  I feel can from work. But just a science story, yeah.
• 2:03:23
  And I've tried to make it brief, so so my profile has I'm a
• 2:03:30
  fellow of Icon, I'm a fellow of AC.
• 2:03:34
  I worked in a BIG4 in Nigeria and the US.
• 2:03:39
  I've been careful of two companies.
• 2:03:41
  I've set up my business and so I can imagine.
• 2:03:45
  You can imagine that if I package my CV, I package my CV
• 2:03:49
  right now, a lot of people would be like, wow, that guy.
• 2:03:55
  Ah, like if even if my Civic could be 1/2 of what he has
• 2:04:01
  done, that that's like that would be massive.
• 2:04:05
  And then you can imagine, and it has really happened to me, It's
• 2:04:08
  not even like, you know, you can imagine that somehow at some
• 2:04:11
  point I applied for a job and I dropped my CV and someone looked
• 2:04:17
  at it and be like, are you giving me this nonsense?
• 2:04:21
  Like I think about people that have done this, this, this,
• 2:04:26
  this, this. Yeah, giving me these guys CV.
• 2:04:31
  So things like that can actually start to really be like, should
• 2:04:35
  I even be a whore? You start to doubt everything
• 2:04:39
  you've done and then you're looking at what more can you do
• 2:04:43
  and then you just you just lose sight of this or the other.
• 2:04:47
  Another example is when you just look at somebody else and just
• 2:04:50
  like, OK, I've not done up to 1% of that.
• 2:04:54
  So those things are really affected.
• 2:04:57
  So the main thing I would say is for anybody, and again maybe I
• 2:05:03
  should probably take more advice, is just always calm
• 2:05:08
  down, take a breath and just focus on your own achievements.
• 2:05:13
  So, like in one case, now being a fellow by then is not a joke.
• 2:05:17
  Like not, it's not. It's not a joke at all.
• 2:05:20
  Even before fellowship isn't being an associate.
• 2:05:24
  It's not. It's not.
• 2:05:25
  There's a lot of sacrifice. It's not just passing exams,
• 2:05:29
  it's all those sleepless nights and to Sean houses, sacrificing
• 2:05:36
  weekends and all of that. And then you literally still
• 2:05:40
  have to pass the exams. And then once you pass the exams
• 2:05:44
  you don't automatically get the certification you must work.
• 2:05:47
  Is it three years, the six months?
• 2:05:49
  Or they hear exactly. And in that space you're not
• 2:05:52
  just sitting around counting time waiting to get your
• 2:05:56
  certificate, you're actually working, making an impact.
• 2:05:58
  So and that's my example. So my advice is people like just
• 2:06:04
  realise that whatever you are doing or whatever you've done,
• 2:06:08
  it wasn't by luck. There were some efforts into it.
• 2:06:13
  There were blood, there was sweat.
• 2:06:14
  There was there. There were tears.
• 2:06:17
  It involved in that and always like be grateful for that.
• 2:06:22
  Also know that yes, there's always something much more to
• 2:06:25
  conquer, but then whatever you've conquered, you've
• 2:06:29
  conquered, it's your own and then own it.
• 2:06:32
  I think that that would help A. Lot.
• 2:06:34
  Yeah. Fantastic.
• 2:06:35
  You at least have to own it. So Speaking of owning it, right?
• 2:06:38
  Like what accomplishments would you say you're most proud of in
• 2:06:41
  your life and your career as a person?
• 2:06:46
  Uh, that that. That's a tough one.
• 2:06:49
  I mean, because that's been being, being, being, being a
• 2:06:53
  lot. I can't even.
• 2:06:56
  I've had. I can't even.
• 2:06:59
  I can't. I can't pick one.
• 2:07:02
  OK, let me pick one. Just for people.
• 2:07:05
  So, so, so it would be while I was in the US, I was in.
• 2:07:11
  So this should be in 2014. Late 2014 I got an outstanding
• 2:07:16
  performance award from my dealer partners.
• 2:07:22
  So why what's so important to me was the fact that again I think
• 2:07:26
  I was dealing with some sort of imposter syndrome to as well.
• 2:07:29
  So I'd left Nigeria. I was doing well in Nigeria.
• 2:07:31
  They went to the to to the US and in my head it was in my head
• 2:07:38
  I was already feeling inferior like this is the US like so
• 2:07:42
  everything you've been doing in Nigeria there is small compared
• 2:07:46
  to what's happening here in the US But as I decided to leading
• 2:07:50
  into what I knew how to do and they need more.
• 2:07:54
  So learning is very important. You just be stagnant.
• 2:07:58
  So I started to learn more and all of that before you know it
• 2:08:02
  was actually now very, very good and very valuable because I
• 2:08:07
  didn't really stop what I was doing before where I was getting
• 2:08:09
  promotions in Nigeria and even on 2nd secondment is kind of
• 2:08:13
  like a promotion because everybody wants to go to the US
• 2:08:16
  then the company now deciding to sponsor you to go as it is a big
• 2:08:22
  jump for your career. So things like that already
• 2:08:24
  showed that was already on the path but when I got into the US
• 2:08:27
  I kind of like struggled a bit with just in my head and now
• 2:08:31
  after a while like just so. So anyway the combination of all
• 2:08:35
  of that was that the partners recognising that OK, yeah this,
• 2:08:39
  this guy is actually good. So he kind of like validated.
• 2:08:42
  He gave me some sort of validation and vindication that
• 2:08:46
  OK yeah I was doing something good so that that would actually
• 2:08:52
  means a lot of mental lots of well over the course of my
• 2:08:55
  career. Like I literally, I think it's
• 2:08:58
  they say this council blessings one by one.
• 2:09:00
  I literally have to count 1 achievement, at least one
• 2:09:03
  achievement every single year. That that that that's that I.
• 2:09:08
  Can't I can't be 20, yeah I can't be in 20/20/2024 and then
• 2:09:12
  I'm thinking about the the performance, how would I got in
• 2:09:16
  2014? Yeah, but then he told us the
• 2:09:19
  sweet spot. You know, it's a sweet spot.
• 2:09:21
  There's always that sweet achievement that you have that
• 2:09:26
  propels you going forward. It's it's like a base.
• 2:09:29
  So it's a it's it's it's not like ohh, that's like the
• 2:09:31
  biggest thing. But then it meant a lot to you.
• 2:09:35
  It's. Great for Yeah, I get you.
• 2:09:37
  But was it? Was It was in the context of the
• 2:09:39
  question to have and I just had to pick 1.
• 2:09:42
  So for me, if if I'm going to be more realistic, then it would be
• 2:09:46
  my most recent, because my most recent one is at the point, not
• 2:09:50
  the most fulfilling 1. That is recessive biassed.
• 2:09:56
  So I've done that one at that time.
• 2:09:58
  It's gone. The next thing do it.
• 2:10:00
  The next thing. The next thing.
• 2:10:02
  The next thing, you know, Yeah. But recency bias is is really.
• 2:10:05
  Yeah, it's a real pain, right? So you talk about learning a
• 2:10:10
  lot. Like what book would you
• 2:10:11
  recommend you know for the audience to succeed in business
• 2:10:14
  and in life generally? I wouldn't recommend a book.
• 2:10:22
  What I would just recommend is just stay open to to learning so
• 2:10:28
  I can't even credit any single book myself Baba.
• 2:10:32
  So again I you realise that most of my questions, most of my
• 2:10:38
  answers come with the context instead of a straight forever.
• 2:10:41
  So for me, for a long time I had my YouTube and the only thing I
• 2:10:47
  watched with it was YouTube was music videos.
• 2:10:51
  Like I watched music videos. That's that's where that's vivo
• 2:10:55
  and all of that. Then after a while, I don't know
• 2:10:59
  where it just changed and I just decided to curate.
• 2:11:03
  I don't know what happened, but it just happened that I just
• 2:11:07
  started creating Nigeria like that.
• 2:11:08
  YouTube is a trove of knowledge, like massive knowledge.
• 2:11:14
  So now if you see my YouTube now is curated with a lot of
• 2:11:18
  business strategy I still like. To house. 5 foot out to yes OK
• 2:11:25
  OK so I know how it happened. This how to be exactly so thank
• 2:11:28
  you for bringing me so I know how it happened.
• 2:11:30
  So I realised that some points when I wanted to do if I was
• 2:11:34
  stuck at work are stuck with something at work.
• 2:11:37
  The first thing is I go on Google and say how do I?
• 2:11:40
  How do I? And for me that's still
• 2:11:42
  learning. A brilliant person is not
• 2:11:43
  somebody that's just has everything in their head.
• 2:11:46
  I think a brilliant person is someone that knows where to go
• 2:11:48
  when they have issues or just whatever, but don't just put
• 2:11:53
  everything so personally. I used to be very proud that I
• 2:11:56
  know all the IFRS are all of that in my head.
• 2:11:59
  But now it's like that's not necessary if you ask me, and I
• 2:12:04
  don't need to know. I know where to go, the
• 2:12:07
  information, where to get information and what's more
• 2:12:10
  important, what's most important is I can go in there and I can,
• 2:12:14
  once I read it, I can understand what's being said and then we
• 2:12:17
  can have a conversation. So I used to do the out to and
• 2:12:20
  then once you do the hour to what it does is it takes you to
• 2:12:23
  the videos and the videos because Google and YouTube are
• 2:12:26
  literally the same business. And so from there I just now
• 2:12:29
  realise that YouTube had a trove of knowledge.
• 2:12:32
  So my YouTube is now lots of how to this business strategy
• 2:12:39
  alright. In fact, my website myself,
• 2:12:42
  Wengie, I created it myself as something I don't, I don't see
• 2:12:46
  any because I feel like I I I I feel like if like a professional
• 2:12:51
  web developer just is like, yeah, we can tell that it was a
• 2:12:55
  professional that did it. But to a layman, Layman, I mean,
• 2:12:58
  I've gotten compliments like your website.
• 2:13:01
  Look I literally just went on YouTube and I watched a tutorial
• 2:13:05
  on how to create a work WordPress website and it took me
• 2:13:09
  3 weeks. So as I was learning, I was
• 2:13:12
  executing our boss, I would do that, do that, blah blah blah.
• 2:13:16
  And I created my myself wenger.com As you can see it was
• 2:13:21
  all done my didn't outsource it to to anyone.
• 2:13:25
  Yes it will have some gaps and things like that anyway,
• 2:13:28
  although they advertise it more like yeah you can do it yourself
• 2:13:31
  but yeah, so that for me that's that's learning.
• 2:13:35
  So for everybody else, yes, it might not be YouTube, just a
• 2:13:38
  case of just the the mindset of staying open to learn and then
• 2:13:45
  more importantly using what you learned is is the is the most
• 2:13:49
  important thing I would say anybody should have.
• 2:13:53
  So basically, Speaking of you learning, all right, they're
• 2:13:56
  like skills and competences that you have or people do not know
• 2:13:59
  about well, you're quite proud of.
• 2:14:04
  Ah, that would be outside of finance.
• 2:14:07
  Yeah, yeah, definitely. Outside of finance, like for me,
• 2:14:10
  for example, I'm, I'm, I'm a great chef.
• 2:14:12
  I can ship it up. I know how to cook really well.
• 2:14:15
  But at some point people did not really know about that.
• 2:14:17
  But over time like recently a suggestion that off.
• 2:14:21
  So like, really, what is it for you that, yeah, it's private,
• 2:14:24
  you know, to do this really well, but people don't know
• 2:14:27
  about it. I I want to say and it's just
• 2:14:32
  gonna go down to my hobby anyway.
• 2:14:34
  So I wanna say I'm extremely skilled at FIFA.
• 2:14:39
  Ohh, wow. I want to say that.
• 2:14:42
  And that's because when I play with people around, like I'm
• 2:14:47
  literally the top dog and I've been playing since I was a kid
• 2:14:51
  and but when I go online and people, people around the world,
• 2:14:56
  like they show me Pepe, so so I did so sometimes I don't even
• 2:15:01
  know how good I am but tastes like that at all but but when I
• 2:15:06
  relax so I actually feel to be honest I actually feel that if I
• 2:15:10
  went into esports, so not just FIFA but just like if I went
• 2:15:15
  into esports, like I I won't be average.
• 2:15:19
  I will be above average. Interesting, interesting that
• 2:15:23
  that. That's a nice one.
• 2:15:24
  That's a nice one. Yeah.
• 2:15:26
  Basically you know towards the end of the court we usually
• 2:15:28
  have, we have a tradition of the podcast, right.
• 2:15:30
  So you have a question from the previous guests and of course
• 2:15:33
  you have, you would have to drop a question for the next guest.
• 2:15:37
  The question from the previous guest is how would you free
• 2:15:40
  people from the poverty that they experience in their minds?
• 2:15:49
  So, so that's what that Nancy dropped that.
• 2:15:52
  Yes, that's the job that I'm interested in.
• 2:15:55
  You saw. You saw.
• 2:15:56
  You saw? Yeah, yeah.
• 2:16:02
  How would I? So is it like if I had
• 2:16:05
  superpowers or something? Because that's actually a very
• 2:16:08
  difficult one. I mean, you can always tell
• 2:16:10
  people whatever you want to tell them, but it's up to them to
• 2:16:13
  take advice. So I try.
• 2:16:16
  I almost don't give advice, except you really come to me and
• 2:16:19
  say help me with this. I know, but any poverty of mind
• 2:16:25
  generally as a concept is 1 where you feel like you don't
• 2:16:29
  have options so you settle for the first lowest hanging fruit.
• 2:16:39
  So a simple answer to that is have an abundance mindset.
• 2:16:43
  An abundance mindset like the the the world is vast.
• 2:16:46
  The resources of the world, the vast, they're limitless,
• 2:16:50
  supposedly are limited, but I think they're at least for a
• 2:16:53
  person, they are limitless. So change your mindset.
• 2:16:57
  Understand that yes, you might be in a situation right now, but
• 2:17:01
  that's not the only situation. So that situation can limit you
• 2:17:05
  into thinking in this setting and the setting we had before
• 2:17:10
  you know it, your mind is closed.
• 2:17:12
  So as you can tell from SO I feel bad answers, you need your
• 2:17:16
  mind to be open. Once your mind is open, then you
• 2:17:20
  see possibilities everywhere and once you see possibilities
• 2:17:23
  everywhere, then they understand, pronounce mindset.
• 2:17:26
  So I generally don't worry about maybe I'm doing something and
• 2:17:30
  I'm going to lose my job or something like so because I just
• 2:17:35
  like yeah, one door closes, another opens, things like that.
• 2:17:39
  So and that way I can then be like where we started.
• 2:17:42
  I started with being very shy but now I'm actually bold enough
• 2:17:46
  to speak my mind to certain people because I understand that
• 2:17:50
  you've not limited me and I've not limited myself to saying if
• 2:17:55
  it doesn't work this way then there's no other way you can
• 2:17:57
  work. So for anybody that having
• 2:18:02
  property of the mind and I just wanna say justice, it's simple
• 2:18:07
  or I just say it's easy but that's simple.
• 2:18:10
  But it's just realise that there's so much in the world,
• 2:18:15
  there's so much abundance in the world and it's just once you,
• 2:18:18
  once you open your mind, have an abundance mindset, you start to
• 2:18:21
  see them and then you take advantage of them and then once
• 2:18:24
  you have reach in the mind, every other thing is.
• 2:18:30
  Interesting. So one question, are you going
• 2:18:32
  to leave for the next guest? Ah, so I didn't really think
• 2:18:36
  it's true. I didn't really think it's true.
• 2:18:39
  But the good thing I also have a podcast as well, so I've just
• 2:18:44
  got to take from one of what? What questions. 1.
• 2:18:47
  Of. Actually left and is so for the
• 2:18:51
  next guest is what are you doing to impact the next generation?
• 2:18:59
  Yeah, if I said what are you doing to back the next
• 2:19:02
  generation of accountants. So I'm just going to leave that.
• 2:19:04
  What are you doing to impact the?
• 2:19:05
  Next The next generation. Ohh wow.
• 2:19:08
  Interesting. So the next guest work cut out
• 2:19:10
  for them. It's been a really, really long
• 2:19:14
  and, you know, insightful conversation today.
• 2:19:18
  I know we've eaten a lot into your very busy schedule.
• 2:19:22
  Thank you very much, Sir, for being on the podcast.
• 2:19:25
  Yeah. Yeah, I'm not getting here today
• 2:19:27
  and it's actually the early days.
• 2:19:29
  So it's it's it was it wasn't really much of an inconvenience
• 2:19:34
  to speak with you today. OK.
• 2:19:37
  Thank you very much. Your time is highly highly
• 2:19:39
  appreciated. Me.
• 2:19:44
  So G, you OK? Do you want to give a shout out
• 2:19:46
  to anybody? Yeah, because the the last guest
• 2:19:48
  I gave them an opportunity to give a shout out to to somebody.
• 2:19:52
  So who would you like to give a shout out to you before we?
• 2:19:56
  Wrap up. I mean they need they just goes
• 2:20:00
  back to the stats but they probably won't watch it.
• 2:20:04
  So maybe maybe my wife will watch it but then it goes back
• 2:20:08
  to start just my my family. So that's my family and I know I
• 2:20:14
  mean we're all in the same space but sometimes the maybe sometime
• 2:20:18
  in the future my data would see this and then maybe this can be
• 2:20:23
  like a time capsule for that study.
• 2:20:26
  So maybe I'll shout out to my kids.
• 2:20:29
  OK. That's Daddy.
• 2:20:31
  Daddy. Daddy.
• 2:20:32
  Daddy was here. OK.
• 2:20:35
  OK. Thank you very much Sir, once
• 2:20:37
  again and God bless you, wishing you the very best in your of all
• 2:20:41
  of your endeavours. We would love to see you know
• 2:20:45
  vice here for angies scale up into a global giant and of
• 2:20:49
  course you becoming a globally recognised name.
• 2:20:53
  God bless you, Sir. That's that's the dream.
• 2:20:57
  If I that's why I left the energy in this stuff.
• 2:20:59
  So let everybody know it's from Nigeria to the world.
• 2:21:03
  Wow, they changed the world. OK?
• 2:21:06
  For me, it's peace. God bless everyone.
• 2:21:10
  Bye.